FOREIGN Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano flew to Beijing on Tuesday to meet with Chinese officials purportedly to discuss joint initiatives intended to strengthen the ties and cooperation between China and the Philippines on various initiatives, including the joint exploration of disputed areas in the South China Sea.
In a press conference before leaving for China, Cayetano said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has invited him to visit China from March 21 to 23.
Cayetano admitted he expected to discuss with his counterpart and other Chinese officials how to further strengthen the partnership cooperation between Beijing and Manila and other issues relating to the disputed areas in the SCS, trade, agriculture, infrastructure development, counter-terrorism cooperation and other regional concerns.
“The overlying reason is strengthening of relations and as we have agreed with them, we will put our dispute to one side and grow the relationship on other aspects,” Cayetano said.
“We will discuss broad areas of collaboration and cooperation and always make it a point to talk about our differences, of our dispute in the South China Sea. But we talk about it in the context of how we can improve our situation,” he added.
According to him, the discussion would also cover the proposed joint exploration with China in the South China Sea.
Manila and Beijing earlier agreed on adopting several confidence-building measures, which included the possibility of conducting several joint initiatives in the resource waters, which covered oil and gas cooperation and marine scientific research.
Such activities would be conducted “without prejudice to their respective positions on sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.”
Cayetano explained that any planned energy-exploration deal with China over the disputed areas in the South China Sea should comply with the Philippine Constitution and international laws.
“We have to find a legal framework that will pass the Philippine Constitution and that will also be acceptable to the Chinese people and Chinese leadership where we can jointly explore areas where there is a dispute in the South China Sea,” Cayetano stressed.
Besides the Philippines and China, the other state-claimants over the disputed SCS include Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
China already agreed in principle for the adoption of code of conduct in the South China Sea following the adoption of the framework on the COC in August last year.
