Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit Philippines on July 5 to 6

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be in Manila on July 5 to 6 and will call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to discuss key bilateral issues and personally extend an invitation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit China, it was learned Monday.

Wang is the second most senior Chinese official to visit the Philippines after Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, who attended Marcos' inauguration on June 30 as Xi's special representative.

Specific details on Wang's trip were not immediately provided, but diplomatic sources told GMA News Online that Beijing's top diplomat will also hold bilateral talks with his Philippine counterpart, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, and National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos.

Wang's trip is taking place a week before the Philippines commemorates its victory before a The Hague-based arbitral tribunal, which invalidated China's sweeping claim in the disputed South China Sea, including waters and features within Manila's exclusive economic zone. China does not recognize the ruling.

Weeks after being elected into office, Marcos pledged to uphold the ruling.

Early in his presidency, Marcos' predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte refused to impose the ruling and focused instead on normalizing ties with China with the aim of securing more trade and infrastructure funds.

But in the latter part of his administration and amid continuing incursions and aggressive actions in the resource-rich waters, Duterte asserted the Philippines' arbitral victory against China on the South China Sea disputes before the United Nations. He said the ruling is "beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon."

Wang is currently on a Southeast Asian swing and will be in the region until July 14 to chair the seventh Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Myanmar and attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Indonesia.

Aside from the Philippines, he will also undertake official visits to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, where he will host the second Meeting of China-Indonesia High-level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism. — RSJ, GMA News