China: Philippines among ‘first to benefit’ from Chinese modernization
Credit to Author: Kaycee Valmonte| Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:11:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — Following China’s “two sessions” or the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress, Beijing said it remains committed to “promoting high quality development” with neighboring countries such as the Philippines.
The promise comes over two months since President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. went on a state visit to Beijng in January upon the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently got reelected.
A delegation led by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong is currently in Manila for the 23rd Philippines-China Foreign Ministry Consultations, the last iteration of which was held in 2019.
“We will promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization and provide new opportunities to the world with our development and countries in the neighborhood, including the Philippines, will be the first to benefit from such opportunities,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun said during the opening session.
“As neighboring developing countries, China and the Philippines need to work together for our respective modernization and our respective development and rejuvenation.”
During her opening statement, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro stressed that the consultations are an important opportunity for Manila and Beijing to further discuss the overall picture of the two countries’ relationship beyond maritime issues.
Marcos Jr.’s state visit to China yielded 14 cooperation agreements and $23.6 billion in investment pledges.
However, analysts previously pointed out that some of these deals are “either revivals or continuations of unfulfilled accords from previous administrations” and the public still awaits for these to come into fruition.
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Lazaro said this week’s consultations may be an avenue to put into action the consensus made between Marcos Jr. and Xi during the state visit.
“We hope to translate the outcomes of the state visit into concrete and high impact engagements that are mutually beneficial for our two peoples or two countries and peoples,” Lazaro said.
However, talks over maritime issues hounding the bilateral relationship are still not off the table. Manila and Beijing will also hold the Bilateral Consultations Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea on Friday.
“We will have the seventh meeting of the BCM and have in-depth communication on maritime-related issues so we also hope that today’s consultation will lay a favorable atmosphere for tomorrow’s discussions,” Sun said.