QINGDAO, Shandong, April 22 -- Member states of a regional naval symposium on Tuesday endorsed the Code for Unalerted Encounters at Sea (CUES), a navy-to-navy template designed to reduce misunderstandings and avoid maritime accidents.

CUES was passed at the biennial meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS), which opened in the Chinese naval port of Qingdao. Based on international legal and navigation principles, it provides participants with a tactical maneuvering and signal manual to reduce interference and uncertainties during naval ship and aircraft encounters.

Zhang Junshe, a researcher with the Naval Military Studies Research Institute of the People's Liberation Army, said the CUES will further navy-to-navy exchanges between WPNS member states, effectively control maritime crises, and help avoid incidents of interference and collisions in international waters.

The WPNS was established in 1987 with the goals to promote pragmatic cooperation between the navies of its member countries, strengthen mutual understanding and trust, and jointly safeguard regional maritime security. It comprises navies whose countries border the Pacific Ocean region.

The Qingdao meeting is the first time for China, one of its 12 founding members, to host the biennial symposium.

More than 140 delegates from its 21 member countries and three observer nations are attending the two-day event, including those from the United States, China, and other Asian states including Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

In a separate agenda, WPNS member states agreed unanimously to let Pakistan become the fourth observer of the WPNS. Bangladesh, India and Mexico are the other three observers.

Delegates at the event are also expected to review the work of WPNS-sponsored seminars and other activities for the past year.

Multi-country maritime exercises will be conducted off the coast of Qingdao from Tuesday to Wednesday to mark the 65th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Navy. The exercises, originally scheduled from April 23 to 24, are not held under the framework of the WPNS, a Chinese navy spokesman said on Sunday.

Seven ships from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Brunei will join the exercises.

China will send warships, supply ships, a hospital ship, helicopters and marines to the exercises, which feature joint maritime search and rescue operations.

The member countries of the WPNS are Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, United States and Vietnam.