Hanoi (VNA) – China and the Philippines on November 20 agreed toupgrade their ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperation.
The decision was made during talks between visiting Chinese President XiJinping and his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte.
Both leaders discussed the thriving bilateral trade and investment relations aswell as China’s participation in the Southeast Asian country’s 180 billion USD“Build, Build, Build” infrastructure project.
Xi said that he and his Philippine counterpart Duterte reached consensus on thecontinued settlement of their divergence.
Earlier, the two leaders witnessed the signing of 29 cooperation deals in variousfields, including education, culture and industrial park development, to branchout infrastructure and agricultural cooperatives.
This was the first state visit of a Chinese leader to the Philippines in thepast 13 years. Xi’s visit is deemed as an important milestone in the bilateralrelations, which were recovered after President Duterte took office in 2016.
Thebilateral ties plunged to its lowest when the Philippines fileda suit against China to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Haguerelated to China’s irrational claim over the “nine-dash line” in 2013. In December2016, the court announced China has no historic rights over the waters insidethe line and its claim is in contrast with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLOS).-VNA
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