Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Koji Tsuruoka underscored the significance of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in developing maritime order in the international community, in his speech at the First Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) at the Manila, the Philippines.Tsuruoka emphasized that non-ASEAN countries in the region, including Japan, should keep supporting these efforts by ASEAN. He said ASEAN’s engagement in the evolving process of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea serves the interest of the entire region. He stressed that  more efforts should be made to establish maritime order and rules depending on characteristics of each region in accordance with relevant international laws including.