Phoenix TV:

Back to the relationship between China and the Philippines, the new president of the Philippines has made some remarks after taking office, most notably a few positive remarks on China-Philippine relations. How does China evaluate these comments from Duterte after the arbitration? And how will the arbitration impact China-Philippine relations? Thank you.

Liu Zhenmin:

The Philippines and China are neighbors across the sea. The two countries have a thousand years of friendly relations. The two countries have many similarities in traditional culture even though the Philippines is a Catholic country. When the Philippines suffers from natural disasters, China will be affected the next day. Taking typhoons for example, the Philippines faces typhoons 3 to 25 times each year, the typhoons hit Taiwan and the southeast coast of China the next day. In a certain sense, the destiny of China and the Philippines is bound together. In the face of natural disasters, we are acommunity of shared destiny. China and the Philippines established diplomatic relations in 1975. Ever since then, bilateral relations have been developing steadily despite the leadership transition in the Philippines. So, we do not understand why the government of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III filed the arbitration against China in 2013, which is a violation of China's sovereignty. In fact, he visited China soon after he came to power. So, we do not understand such behavior. In my opinion, fortunately the Philippine leadership has changed after the election, which provides a good opportunity for the China-Philippine relations to become improved.

I have just talked about that. In fact, our Minister Wang Yi also mentioned that China welcomes the positive attitude and posture of President Duterte and his government on the South China Sea issue and on the arbitration. We hope that China and the Philippines can return to the track of negotiations to resolve the South China Sea dispute, and push for a turnabout of the situation and create more favorable conditions for closer cooperation. I believe that everything will be fine after the rainy days of the arbitration. And we hope the day to come soon. However, we need to wait for the day to come. We have the patience and confidence for it. I think that cooperation between China and the Philippines will bring the two peoples, especially the Filipinos, tangible benefits. It will help contribute to China-ASEAN cooperation, to peace and stability in South-East Asia, in the South China Sea and cooperation in the South China Sea. Thank you.

Guo Weimin:

I should like to add that I very much agree with Vice Minister Liu's comment and presentation. I headed a delegation to the Philippines this March and attended the conference of the ASEAN Plus Three Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI+3). I met a number of Filipino officials and ordinary people there. I feel deeply that China and the Philippines enjoy a traditional friendship and there's strong basis for developing friendly and cooperative relations. Now, every year there are a large number of Chinese tourists that travel to the Philippines and the Filipino people have friendly feelings towards Chinese people. The arbitration filed by the government of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III was actually manipulated by minor political forces and a number of countries. It is treachery. The wrong decision was made in total disregard of the overall situation of China-Philippine relations and has been met with a lot of opposition from both Filipino officials and ordinary people. During my visit, they took a very unhappy and critical attitude towards the government of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. They also hope that China and the Philippines could strengthen friendly cooperation. So, what Minister Liu just said, we very much hope that the new government will take a holistic approach to promote the development of China-Philippine friendly relations. We hope that China and the Philippines work together to meet each other halfway. Thank you.