President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping might discuss the issue of South China Sea during their meeting in Beijing.
This was disclosed by one of the executives of the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday in Manila.
Together with his delegation including businessmen, Duterte will travel to China for a state visit beginning October 18 to 21. But prior to this, he will first push through with his then-cancelled Brunei trip on October 16 to 18 also for a state visit.
In a pre-departure press briefing in Malacañang on Friday, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Assistant Secretary Charles Jose said the South China Sea row might be brought up during Duterte’s trip to China.
“Well, the bilateral relations between the Philippines and China are very expansive. So we expect that all areas of interest will be—expected to be discussed, including the South China Sea,” Jose said.
“Well, I don’t know how things will emerge ‘no. Well, I would imagine this will be taken up during the meeting of the President with President Xi Jinping,” he added.
Despite of this, the DFA official noted that the relationship between the Philippines and China is not focused on the South China Sea, also called the West Philippine Sea.
To recall, Manila filed an arbitration case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. Earlier this year, the PCA ruled in favor of the Philippines but China refused to respect the ruling.
“We have always been consistent in our position that the South China Sea is not the sum total of our relations with China. We can deal with it separately but, at the same time, we would like to develop and strengthen our other areas of cooperation with China including trade, investment, tourism, people-to-people exchanges. So I think that’s exactly what we are doing now with the President’s visit to China,” Jose explained.
In fact, a number of deals between the two countries, according to Jose, would be signed during Duterte’s visit.
“I think the President has been consistent and clear in his previous pronouncement as to where he stands with regard to the arbitral award or decision,” Jose said.
“So I think, we leave it to the President’s wisdom and judgment as to when he thinks the time is appropriate to bring up this matter with the Chinese,” he added.