Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he will have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss ways to ease tensions in the South China Sea.
Marcos will seek Xi’s views “on what we can do to bring down the temperature, to not escalate the situation” in the disputed sea, according to a statement issued Friday by the Presidential Communications Office. The meeting would be for “some time” Friday, the statement said.
“After that, we will put together the ways forward because we are continuously trying to maintain the peace,” Marcos said, adding that he’s looking to “strategize for the near future” and determine the country’s “proper” role in the South China Sea. Marcos and Xi are attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Marcos’s statement comes as tensions between the two neighbors flared up in recent months.
At an operation by the Southeast Asian nation to resupply its lone outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal earlier this month, Chinese ships tried to block Philippine vessels as part of Beijing’s sweeping claims over South China Sea. Last month, Chinese and Philippine vessels collided in two separate occasions during a resupply mission by Manila, escalating tensions.
