Chinese foreign minister arriving July 25

July 21, 2017

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will arrive a few days before a regional security forum in Manila to meet with his Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano. In its advisory, the Department of Foreign Affairs  on Friday said Wang and Cayetano will hold a bilateral meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig at 10:30 am on July 25. It will be followed by a press conference before noon. Wang is the second most senior Chinese official to visit the Philippines after Chinese Vice Premiere Wang Yang in March. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings to be hosted by the Philippines in early August include the ASEAN Regional Forum – Asia’s largest security gathering  attended by ASEAN’s 17 dialogue partners and foreign ministers of the United States, China, Japan, Australia and Russia, among others. Relations between the two Asian neighbors plunged to its lowest when the Philippines sought arbitration in January 2013 to invalidate China’s massive claim over the South China Sea. A few weeks into Duterte’s presidency, the tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines, but China refused to honor decision. Duterte contended that pressing China to comply with the ruling may result to an armed conflict that the Philippines will certainly lose given China's military might. Duterte focused on normalizing ties  with China with the aim of securing more trade and infrastructure funds. DMS