Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 18) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday to voice his concerns over persistent tensions in the West Philippine Sea, where one recent incident resulted in dangerous collisions between ships of Manila and Beijing.
The two leaders had a pull-aside meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) summit in San Francisco – something Marcos said he requested to find ways to prevent conflict in the disputed waters.
“The problems remain and it is something that we will need to continue to communicate to find ways to avoid such incidents,” he told reporters after the meeting.
“Essentially, we tried to come up with mechanisms to lower the tensions in South China Sea,” he added.
Marcos also said he again called attention to the plight of Filipino fishermen, whose livelihoods continue to be affected by the presence of Chinese vessels in the area.
The Presidential Communications Office said Marcos asked the Chinese leader “that they go back to the situation where both Chinese and Filipino fishermen were fishing together in these waters, a point that he thinks was well taken by Xi.”
Marcos said during his state visit to China last January that he and Xi both committed “to find a compromise” that will allow Filipinos to exercise their fishing rights.
Despite the flare-up in tensions in the West Philippine Sea, both officials maintained that the sea dispute does not define the two countries’ relationship.
“That’s essentially the message that we spoke of to each other, that we were in agreement that the problems that we have in South China Sea, with China, should not be the defining element of our relationship,” Marcos said on Friday.
Before his discussions with Xi, Marcos met with United States Vice President Kamala Harris on the sidelines of the APEC summit, with their talks also centering on the situation in the contested seas and ways forward to maintain peace.
