China confident it can work with PHL to improve relations

China confident it can work with PHL to improve relations


China believes it can work with the Philippines to restore the healthy relationship in the past, Beijing's vice foreign minister said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ASEAN leaders' summit in Laos.

Pressured to comment on photos supposedly showing Chinese boats around the disputed shoal in the West Philippine Sea, Chinese vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said, "China has confidence that it can work with the Philippines to progressively improve our relationship."

Citing a Reuters report, Unang Balita on Thursday also quoted Liu as saying that the Philippines had had "thousands of years" of good relations.

Liu's comment came after the Philippines' defense ministry distributed photos showing what it claimed were Chinese boats near the Panatag Shoal off the province of Zambales in western Central Luzon, a fishing ground of the province's residents.

China-Philippine relations have soured up over Beijings' recent aggressive actions in disputed areas in the South China Seas, parts of which Manila calls West Philippine Sea.

"In the past 30 years, the relationship has been very smooth, it's only in the past few years, because of some problems known to all, the relationship has been affected," Reuters quoted Liu as saying.

Liu was referring to an international arbitration case Manila had filed against China over its excessive territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In its ruling, the international arbitral court  favored Manila, but Beijing has refused to recognize the court's jurisdiction over the case.

But at the ASEAN meet, Liu stressed that the ties with the new government of Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte "had started well."

China claims most of the potentially mineral-rich sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and rejects the rival claims of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. — with a report from Reuters/LBG, GMA News