QINGDAO, China (AP) — Naval officials from the U.S. and nearly two dozen Asia-Pacific nations adopted an agreement Tuesday aimed at heading off accidents and miscommunication at sea to reduce the possibility of conflict amid rising frictions between an increasingly assertive China and its neighbors.

The Code For Unplanned Encounters at Sea was approved unanimously at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium held in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.