Marcos to discuss West Philippine Sea with Xi at sidelines of APEC meet
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Thailand where he is expected to discuss the situation in the West Philippine Sea with the latter, Malacañang said Thursday.
Marcos has said that among his “top agenda” when he meets with Xi in a bilateral meeting is the West Philippine Sea, which he said is “impossible” for him to not talk about with China.
During the 25th ASEAN-China Summit in Cambodia, Marcos pushed for the approval of a code of conduct that will govern the behavior of claimants to the South China Sea in the hopes of reducing the risk of conflict over the strategic waterway.
China continues to ignore the 2016 Hague-based tribunal ruling that invalidated their virtual claim of all of South China Sea.
Earlier, Malacañang announced that Marcos will be conducting a State visit to China from “January 3 to 5/6"” upon Xi’s invitation.
Under Marcos’ predecessor former President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines pivoted away from its traditional ally, the US, and towards China.
This pivot resulted in what critics said was a foreign policy that was too soft on China, which frequently encroached into the West Philippine Sea.
Marcos has pursued a “friend to all, enemy to none” foreign policy, allowing Washington to re-engage with Manila despite their “rocky past.”
But this same policy has allowed Marcos to remain friendly with China, which Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in July they “highly appreciate.”
Marcos has enjoyed close ties with China, owing largely to his father’s establishment of diplomatic relations with the country in 1975. — Xave Gregorio
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