Marcos pledges cooperation with China as next APEC chair

Metro Manila, Philippines - President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed cooperation with China as it assumed next year’s chairmanship of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on Saturday, Nov. 1, in a surprising handshake with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The gesture was the only interaction Marcos had with Xi during the two-day APEC Summit in South Korea, with the tensions in the disputed West Philippine Sea unmentioned in the brief encounter.

“I congratulated President Xi Jinping as China [assumed] the APEC Chairmanship in 2026, and reaffirmed the Philippines’ commitment to partnership and meaningful cooperation in our region,” Marcos wrote in a Facebook post.

After Xi said China will host the 33rd APEC Leaders’ Meeting in a closed-door ceremony, the Chinese leader and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung stood up and shook hands, as seen in a video of Korean media.

As they settled in their seats, Marcos approached Xi to also shake his hands. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi quickly got up to interpret the Philippine leader’s words.

Marcos said it was just “common courtesy,” adding he was seizing the moment as he could not get a word with the Chinese president on the sidelines of the summit because of his security detail.

“When we came to the end, sabi ko, nakakahiya ito, hindi pa ako bumabati. Baka kung ano sabihin, baka naman ma-offend, so pinilit kong makapunta sa kanya,” the president told Philippine media after the APEC summit.

[Translation: When we came to the end [of the summit], I thought to myself it’s embarrassing that I have not greeted him yet. Maybe he will say something or get offended by it so I insisted on approaching him.]

“Sabi ko lang sa kanya [I told him]: ‘Congratulations, we look forward to doing a lot of good work with you as APEC chair. Thank you, thank you.’ Tapos ayon [That was it]. There was really not very much to it,” he said as he recounted the moment.

Marcos said China and the Philippines did not ask for a meeting with one another during the APEC summit as it was “not the time or place to talk about the West Philippine Sea.”

“We will not achieve anything [by] having a meeting about that…This is APEC, it’s an economic meeting. We really don’t talk about such issues. In ASEAN, pwede pa [It could be talked about in ASEAN summit],” he said.

RELATED: Marcos to invite Xi in ASEAN, seeks to redefine ties with Beijing 

Marcos also did not have a bilateral meeting with the United States during the APEC Summit. US President Donald Trump met with Xi ahead of the event and did not participate in the summit proper.

“The best info I got says that they have declared peace for at least a year so the trade war will be less intense,” he said.

He said his government is trying to get more information on how the US-China talks will impact Philippine trade deals with the two countries. 

As he landed in Manila on Sunday, Marcos said he emphasized during the regional meeting the importance of narrowing the digital divide for MSMEs, advancing seamless movements of goods and people to infrastructure development, and promoting supply chain resiliency, among others.

PH-US military task force

Marcos’ handshake with Xi was after the Philippine president slammed China at the ASEAN Summit for its recent declaration of a “national nature reserve” in Scarborough Shoal, calling it a violation of the country’s sovereignty and international law. 

On Friday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced that the Philippines and the United States formed the “Task Force Philippines.” The two countries have a mutual defense treaty.

The military initiative would help “increasing interoperability exercising, and preparedness for contingencies, so that we can decisively respond to crisis or aggression and establish deterrence in the South China Sea,” Hegseth said.

Marcos said the task force would organize the two countries into a “more cohesive unit” to protect the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, particularly the West Philippine Sea.

“I hope it will lower the tensions in the West Philippine Sea,” he said. “It will certainly not heighten them. It’s not something new.”