MANILA - The Philippines and China have agreed to set up more lines of communication, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr expressed confidence that their issues over the South China Sea territorial dispute would be worked out to benefit both nations.
Mr Marcos on Saturday met Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who arrived in Manila on Friday night for a two-day visit amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
“We agreed to establish more lines of communication so that any event that occurs in the West Philippine Sea that involves China and the Philippines can immediately be resolved,” said Mr Marcos.
“So we are currently working on that and we are awaiting the Chinese response, and we are confident that these issues would be worked out that would be mutually beneficial for both our nations,” he added.
The West Philippine Sea is the official term Manila uses to refer to the eastern parts of the South China Sea that lie within the country’s exclusive economic zone.
In 2016, an arbitral tribunal ruled that this area belongs to the Philippines, but China has refused to recognise the ruling.
China has instead been ramping up its military aggression in the disputed waterway, prompting Mr Marcos to bolster security ties with allies such as Australia, Japan and the United States to counter Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
But Mr Marcos has been striking a delicate balancing act as his government continues to foster relations with China, Manila’s largest trading partner.
He also started 2023 with a state visit to Beijing, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to revive talks on a potential joint oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea.
Tensions simmered in April 2023, however, after China expressed displeasure over Manila identifying four additional military bases that the US now has access to under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (Edca).
Three of these military sites are in two northern Philippine provinces that are only hundreds of kilometres from Taiwan, the self-ruled democratic island that Beijing considers as part of China. With the latest four bases, the US now has access to a total of nine military locations in the Philippines.
Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, in his speech at a Manila public forum on Philippines-China relations on April 14, advised Manila that if it genuinely cares about the welfare of the 158,000 migrant Filipino workers in Taiwan, it should “oppose Taiwan independence” instead of stoking tensions in the region by expanding Edca.
The controversial statement caused an uproar in the Philippines, but Mr Marcos downplayed it as having been “lost in translation”.
A week later, Mr Qin visited the Philippines to meet his counterpart, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, and Mr Marcos.
On Saturday, the Philippine President said his meeting with Mr Qin was “useful… so we can talk directly” to each other and “iron things out”.
Mr Manalo reassured Beijing of the Philippines’ commitment to the one-China policy, which states that there is only one China, that Taiwan is a part of China’s territory and Beijing is the sole legal government of China.
He also “emphasised that the Philippines pursues an independent foreign policy, which seeks to ensure stability and prosperity in the region”, said the Department of Foreign Affairs.
