Photo courtesy: Presidential Communications Office
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will invite Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Philippines next year, when the country hosts the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and other meetings.
Xi’s presence would be especially significant if a legally binding Code of Conduct on the South China Sea is signed in Manila next year, the President said in a press conference on Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he attended the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits.
“I will certainly invite him, and I would make all of the efforts available – all of the ways available, the means that we have available to us to show how sincere – to President Xi Jinping how sincere we are that we would like for him to come to the Philippines,” Marcos said.
He noted that Xi had visited Manila before. The last time the Chinese leader came to the Philippines was in November 2018 during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“And so, if we get to that point where President Xi will actually consider coming to the Philippines, it would mean that we have made significant progress. And that would be a great thing, that would be just a great thing,” he said, referring to the COC.
Marcos expressed optimism that a legally binding COC could be signed under the Philippine ASEAN chairmanship.
“Earlier, I said that at heart I’m an optimist. And that’s really my view, and we cannot – we cannot give up. We cannot say that ‘Oh there’s no hope, and we cannot – nothing’s happening, we cannot move forward, we cannot resolve this thing.’ Once we’ve done that, we failed,” he said.
“And we cannot fail because we have to find the way forward, we have to find a better way of dealing with these things. It would be a failure to the duties that we took an oath to – to protect and defend the Philippines and its people,” Marcos explained.
However, if a COC could not be yet finalized, Marcos said his administration will pursue alternative solutions.
“If that doesn’t work, we’ll try something else. But we cannot stop. We must continue and continue and continue until we find the solution. Now, that is not an easy process by no stretch of the imagination is that an easy process. But that’s what the process requires of us, and so that is what we will do,” he added.
ASEAN nations and China have been negotiating a legally binding COC in the disputed waters since 2018.
Aside from Manila and Beijing, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam- also ASEAN members – as well as Taiwan, have claims in the South China Sea.
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