Palace: South China Sea dispute, joint exploration could be on agenda of Duterte-Xi meeting

Developments in the maritime row between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea could be on the agenda of the upcoming meeting between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Malacañang said Monday.

Duterte’s spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, said the maritime dispute and the planned joint exploration in the West Philippine Sea, an area of the South China Sea being claimed by Manila, “could be part of the discussion” between the two leaders later this month.

It will be Duterte’s fifth trip to China since assuming office in 2016. His last visit to China was in April when he attended the Second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

“All visits of the President, if it’s working [visit], then it refers to discussion with the visited country relative to issues that affect both — issues that will benefit both countries; issues of conflict; issues of cooperation; issues of support especially with respect to terrorism, to fighting drugs, to cultural exchanges, people-to-people and financing too,” Panelo said at a news conference.

During his fourth State of the Nation Address on July 22, Duterte reaffirmed that the West Philippine Sea belongs to the Philippines.

He also said the government would stop China from fishing within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone “in due time.”

The President was pilloried when he dismissed an incident last June 9 in which a Chinese vessel rammed and badly damaged a Philippine fishing boat as a mere accident, despite 22 Filipinos being left to fend for themselves in the open sea for five hours.

Duterte then said that he could not send the military to drive foreign fishers out of the West Philippine Sea because the servicemen would be killed.

Beijing insists ownership over the waters and its features nearly in its entirety – a claim debunked by an arbitral tribunal court in The Hague, Netherlands in 2016.

Duterte, however, has set aside the panel's landmark ruling, which also upheld the Philippines' exclusive rights to exploit resources within its exclusive economic zone, in favor of warmer relations with the Asian powerhouse.  —KBK, GMA News