Philippines - Del Rosario meets with Chinese official

MANILA, Philippines — Pursuing efforts to ease tensions with China over a territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario sat down with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday for a discussion of “issues of mutual concern.”

Raul Hernandez, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said Del Rosario met with Yang in Beijing after he visited Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady.

Brady suffered a stroke on Wednesday. She is “recovering well” in a hospital in Beijing, Hernandez said.

“Discussions between Secretary Del Rosario and Minister Yang were productive and issues of mutual concern were discussed in a positive atmosphere,” Hernandez said in a statement.

Hernandez did not say, however, if the discussions included the territorial row between the Philippines and China over Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea.

Philippine efforts to reach out to China followed Yang’s apparent snub of Manila in a swing around Southeast Asian countries earlier this month.

Just as Manila was protesting China’s establishment of Sansha City on Woody Island in the Paracels and garrisoning it with military troops, ostensibly for administering the disputed islands in the chain and the Spratly Islands, Yang was traveling to the region to visit Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia.

In Jakarta, however, Yang said China was willing to discuss a proposed code of conduct in the West Philippine Sea with the Association of Southeast Asean Nations (Asean).

The proposed code would prevent the eruption of territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea, where islands, reefs and atolls are believed to be sitting on vast deposits of oil and natural gas, into armed clashes.

Asean members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan claim parts of the West Philippine Sea. But China insists it owns nearly all of the sea, including those parts claimed by the four Asean countries and Taiwan.

Of the Asean claimants, the Philippines and Vietnam have been most vocal about pushing for a regional position on the dispute, while China has been adamant about dealing with its rivals in one-on-one talks.

Asked recently about Yang’s decision not to visit Hanoi and Manila, Del Rosario said:  “I don’t want to speculate on what the Chinese foreign minister was thinking about when he skipped the Philippines and Vietnam. I guess you could come to your own conclusions.”

But Del Rosario said he would be open to receive a high-level Chinese delegation to the Philippines.

Del Rosario is preparing to visit Southeast Asian neighbors in hopes of winning support for the Philippines’ efforts to settle its territorial dispute with China according to international law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

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