President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to strengthen bilateral relations with China and Japan during his talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the sidelines of the ASEAN-Plus Three (APT) Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Saturday.
Aside from the pull-aside discussions, Mr. Marcos also held bilateral meetings with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
Premier Li said he believes there should be continued growth of China-Philippines relations, underscoring that what the two countries have in common “far outweighs” their differences, a reference to the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
Mr. Marcos said he “absolutely” agrees with Li’s position.
“And I thank you for remembering my father and his initiative to come to China and it was he after all who made Philippines and China family,”
Mr. Marcos said, referring to his father’s 1975 visit to Beijing.
“So I look forward to discussing all of these when I come to visit in January,” the President said.
Mr. Marcos’ state visit to China will take place from Jan. 3 to 5 or 6, 2023, the Office of the Press Secretary said.
The OPS announcement superseded an earlier statement by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin that the President would make a state visit to Japan ahead of a similar visit to China.
Mr. Marcos on Friday pushed for the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea based on international law, which he said should be an example of how states manage their differences.
At the 25th ASEAN-China Summit, President Marcos said the immediate conclusion of the COC becomes more relevant as nations mark 40 years of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and 20 years of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
“It shall be an example of how states manage their differences: through reason and through right,” Marcos said, adding that he welcomed progress on the negotiations over the text of the COC, which he said he hoped would be approved “in the very near future.”
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said he was pleased to have a very rich and thorough conversation back in September with President Marcos.
“Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the friendship and cooperation between Japan and ASEAN. And I look forward to advancing the cooperation between ASEAN and Japan,” Kishida said.
In response, Mr. Marcos said: “All of the concepts that we first started to discuss when we were in New York, we are continuing to develop in our government so that when the time comes this concept that you have introduced to us on economic stability, ASEAN and the Philippines will continue to develop more of these ideas, and these concepts.”
The Japanese leader said he looks forward to receiving President Marcos in Tokyo but no date has been set yet for the state visit.