Xi Jinping tells Rodrigo Duterte to ‘put aside’ South China Sea dispute and focus on oil and gas deal
- Chinese president also urges his visiting Philippine counterpart not to be influenced by ‘external interference’ – an apparent reference to US pressure
- Xi reiterates Beijing’s position that it does not recognise 2016 international tribunal ruling on contested waterway in favour of Manila
Duterte is on his fifth visit to China, seeking to boost investment in the country as well as to formally discuss the dispute for the first time in three years to assuage concerns at home over increasing Chinese encroachment in the contested waters.
But in an apparent rebuke to Duterte’s complaint, Xi on Thursday called for Manila to “put aside the dispute” and not to be influenced by “external interference”, an apparent reference to pressure from the United States, according to a statement from China’s foreign ministry.
During the meeting with Duterte, Xi also called for the two countries to focus on cooperation, to move ahead with a plan to jointly explore oil and gas in the resource-rich waterway and to finish negotiations on a code of conduct for the South China Sea by 2021.
A “joint steering committee” made up of diplomats and energy officials and a “joint entrepreneurial working committee” of business figures involved in the oil and gas project were set up after the meeting, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said on Friday that Xi had also reiterated Beijing’s position that it did not recognise an international tribunal ruling on the South China Sea in 2016, and that would not change. The tribunal ruled in favour of Manila’s economic rights in part of the waterway also claimed by Beijing.
