PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is preparing to visit China before the end of 2016, five months after the Philippines won a case against Beijing over territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Friday.
In a television interview, Yasay said the visit will allow Duterte to take up the the peaceful settlement of the country’s maritime dispute with China in the South China Sea.
“I know that there are plans for him to visit, but there are certain things that have to be threshed out before the visit can actually take place,” Yasay said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
“We would like to make sure that the visit would be one that is meaningful and fruitful… settlement of our dispute,” he added.
Yasay said one of the things that need to be threshed out is that there are no conditions to Duterte’s visit.
“We’d like to make sure that for instance that the trip of the President, talking with the highest officials of China, will not be subject to any conditions. You don’t want to start off with certain conditions to be met. That’s something that we would like to discuss more thoroughly and clarify with China,” Yasay explained.
Duterte’s first official visit to the Southeast Asian countries will kick off in September starting with Brunei.
“I would anticipate that maybe some date later would be more realistic,” Yasay said of the China trip.
When asked if it will be at the end of the year, the Foreign chief said: “Yes, yes. This is something that we would like to push through.”
China has been claiming 90-percent of the whole Island and waters of the South China Sea citing the nine-dash line map of its so called ancient Chinese map.
China has also an overlapping dispute with other Southeast Asian countries, like Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam.
There has not been a Philippine ambassador in China since former ambassador Erlinda Basilio, who fell ill while at her post. Basilio replaced Sonia Brady who also fell ill while at Beijing in 2012.
Yasay said that he has already submitted his shortlist of possible candidates to serve as ambassador to China. Two of the candidates are career officials while the third is a political appointee.
