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May 11, 2016

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Duterte ‘open’ to South China Sea talks

Source: AFP | May 11, 2016, Wednesday | Print Edition

PHILIPPINES president-elect Rodrigo Duterte is willing to talk with China over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea, his spokesman said yesterday, in a significant reversal of the incumbent’s stance.

Duterte, landslide winner of Monday’s election, is also willing to form partnerships with China to extract gas and oil deposits that are believed to be in the sea, as well as explore joint fishing management systems, Peter Lavina said.

“This is the difference between the current and the Duterte administrations, the mayor is open to bilateral talks with China,” Lavina told reporters in Davao, the major southern city where Duterte has ruled as mayor for most of the past two decades.

China and the Philippines, under President Benigno Aquino, have endured steadily worsening relations in recent years as they sparred over joint claims to parts of the South China Sea.

The Philippines has signed a new defense pact with the United States and filed a legal challenge with a United Nations tribunal asking it to rule the Chinese claims invalid.

Lavina said Duterte would continue with the UN case. A verdict is expected soon after Duterte is sworn in on June 30.

He also sought to downplay a Duterte comment on the campaign trail that he would use a jet ski to reach an island claimed by China to claim it for the Philippines. “He jokingly said that if we win that case and China will not respect it, he will use a jet ski,” Lavina said.

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