It follows the conference titled “Maritime Challenges in the Asia Pacific Moving Towards Political, Environmental, and Functional Cooperation” held in November 2016 in Manila, jointly organized by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Philippines Office, the AIM Rizalino S. Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness, the Foreign Service Institute of the Philippines and Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The participants from Europe and Asia hope to contribute to a fruitful and sustainable approach to intra- and interregional cooperation as well as conflict resolution in the South China Sea and East Asia.