Skip to footer

Philippines seeks formal talks with China amid South China Sea tensions-Ramos

Manila wants formal discussions with China to explore pathways to peace and cooperation.

|
AP Photo/Vincent Yu
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, left, listens to a question from a reporter during a press briefing at the Philippines consular office in Hong Kong, China, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016. Ramos said Friday that China has welcomed him to visit Beijing for discussions in the wake of last month's international arbitration panel's ruling in favor of the Philippines over China's South China Sea maritime claims.
  • By Venus Wu Reuters

| HONG KONG

The Philippines special envoy to China, Fidel Ramos, said on Friday that Manila wants formal discussions with China to explore pathways to peace and cooperation after a meeting with former Chinese deputy foreign minister Fu Ying.

Ramos was speaking near the end of a trip to Hong Kong undertaken in an attempt to rekindle ties with China, which have been soured by a maritime dispute in the South China Sea.

In a statement signed by Ramos and Fu, they said their "informal discussions focused on the need to engage in further talks to build trust and confidence to reduce tensions to pave the way for overall cooperation."

The statement added that China welcomes Ramos to visit Beijing at some point as the special envoy of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who took office in June and has signaled a greater willingness to engage with China than his predecessor.

"It's not really a breakthrough in a sense that there is no ice here in Hong Kong to break but the fish we eat... are cooked in delicious recipes," Ramos told reporters, having earlier referred to his visit as a fishing expedition.

An arbitration court in the Hague ruled on July 12 that China had no historic title over the busy waterway and had breached the Philippines' sovereign rights there. The decision infuriated Beijing, which dismissed the court's authority to rule on the matter.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, believed to be rich in energy deposits.

The statement added that both Beijing and Manila would seek to promote fishing cooperation, marine preservation, and tourism though it made no specific mention of the South China Sea or the ruling. No time frame was given for possible talks.

Ramos said neither side asserted their own sovereignty over disputed areas in the South China Sea such as the Scarborough Shoal and Mischief Reef.

"There was no discussion on that particular aspect except to mention equal fishing rights," said Ramos.

The statement said the discussions were carried out in a private capacity, and Ramos said later other back channel discussions with China were underway.

China seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, denying Philippine fishermen access. This was among the factors that prompted Manila to seek arbitration.

Ramos was Philippines president from 1992 to 1998, when China occupied the submerged Mischief Reef.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Philippines seeks formal talks with China amid South China Sea tensions-Ramos
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2016/0812/Philippines-seeks-formal-talks-with-China-amid-South-China-Sea-tensions-Ramos
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe