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Manila to focus new Bejing talks on trade, investment and infrastructure
THE Philippines will end talks with China on resolving the Spratly Island-South China Sea dispute and refocus on investment, infrastructure development and trade, reports Dubai's Gulf News.
"The natural effect of engaging China in other areas of concern will precisely open the door for more open discussions of the [maritime] dispute with the view of resolving the dispute peacefully," said Filipino Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay in a forum organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.
"To begin with, we cannot proceed on engaging China in bilateral talks where China says that we can only talk outside of the framework of the arbitral tribunal's decision," Mr Yasay said.
He was referring to the July 25 ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) that China's entire claim of the South China Sea is illegal; its expansion of shoals and rocks into artificial islands in the South China Sea wrong; and it should open the Scarborough Shoal it occupied 230 kilometres west of Zambales in 2012, because it is a common fishing ground for all claimants of the South China Sea.
"This is what President Rodrigo Duterte means in the context of saying that we must pursue an independent foreign policy; that is what our constitution mandates, to pursue amity with all nations," explained Mr Yasay.
President Rodrigo Duterte has adopted a practical foreign policy with China, explained pro-China analysts in Manila.
Earlier, after the PCA ruling that favoured the Philippines, President Duterte said he wanted bilateral talks with China so that Filipino fishermen on the western seaboard of northern Luzon could fish at the Scarborough Shoal.
"The natural effect of engaging China in other areas of concern will precisely open the door for more open discussions of the [maritime] dispute with the view of resolving the dispute peacefully," said Filipino Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay in a forum organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.
"To begin with, we cannot proceed on engaging China in bilateral talks where China says that we can only talk outside of the framework of the arbitral tribunal's decision," Mr Yasay said.
He was referring to the July 25 ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) that China's entire claim of the South China Sea is illegal; its expansion of shoals and rocks into artificial islands in the South China Sea wrong; and it should open the Scarborough Shoal it occupied 230 kilometres west of Zambales in 2012, because it is a common fishing ground for all claimants of the South China Sea.
"This is what President Rodrigo Duterte means in the context of saying that we must pursue an independent foreign policy; that is what our constitution mandates, to pursue amity with all nations," explained Mr Yasay.
President Rodrigo Duterte has adopted a practical foreign policy with China, explained pro-China analysts in Manila.
Earlier, after the PCA ruling that favoured the Philippines, President Duterte said he wanted bilateral talks with China so that Filipino fishermen on the western seaboard of northern Luzon could fish at the Scarborough Shoal.
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