By Karen Lema and Nestor Corrales
MANILA, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr expressed optimism on Friday that despite heated disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea, the two countries could cooperate economically, including on joint energy exploration.
In remarks at an event with foreign journalists in Manila, Marcos said there were many instances where the two countries cooperated, including on energy supplies when conflict broke out in the Middle East this year.
“I don’t think that’s in any policy, in any policy statement, that we are distancing ourselves from China,” Marcos said.
“We are continuing to find many, many instances where we are very much in cooperation with China. China is one of the biggest investors still in the Philippines,” he added.
Ties between the Philippines and China have been strained for years, tested again recently by a series of confrontations in the South China Sea.
Those include a clash at disputed Second Thomas Shoal in July involving Chinese coast guard personnel wielding wooden batons, a water-cannon incident near the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal days later, and Beijing placing sanctions on the Philippine defence minister.
The Philippines needed a secure energy supply and there were offshore gas deposits that could be tapped, Marcos said.
Those include the Reed Bank, located in the Philippine exclusive economic zone. The two countries have for years discussed the prospect of joint exploration there, but talks have broken down repeatedly, with disagreements on who had sovereign rights.
“We have to find new ways… this discussion has gained prominence. And where we are now, I think we have moved forward,” Marcos said on joint exploration.
“The sense that I get is that all parties involved want it to succeed, and that is always a very good sign.”
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $3 trillion in trade passes annually, despite a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated those claims in a case brought by Manila.
Marcos also said there was no special arrangement with Beijing under which the Philippines needs to ask its permission to carry out resupply missions in the South China Sea or give up its rights, adding Manila’s position had not been weakened.
(Reporting by Karen Lema, Mikhail Flores and Nestor Corrales; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by John Mair)
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