During a visit to Manila this week, China’s foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Filipino counterpart Alan Cayetano announced plans for joint exploration in the South China Sea to search for oil and gas.
“Joint exploration doesn't affect and involve each other country's independent legal systems,” Wang Yi told a press conference in Manila.
“It is about the two sides making a common rule or reaching an agreement.”
The Philippines has promised to consult with other ASEAN nations before finalising the agreement, but Alan Cayetano says it will benefit the whole region.
“The first tangible and easily seen product is the peace and stability not only in the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea, but in the whole region.”
It’s a dramatic turnaround from frosty relations just over a year ago, when the UN-backed Hague ruled in favour of the Philippines and against China’s claims to most of the disputed waters last July.
In another press conference on Wednesday, Filipino Foreign Minister Alan Cayetano promised that the Philippines will not lose even a “single inch” of territory to China if it does go ahead with joint exploration deal with the Asian giant.
While former Philippine president Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III took a hard-line stance against China on the disputed waters, current leader Rodrigo Duterte has spent his first term in office cosying up to Beijing.
Meeting with foreign minister Wang Yi in Manila earlier in the week, the firebrand Filipino president hopes closer ties will mean more Chinese investment to boost the Filipino economy and security.
Beijing has already pledged approximately $3 million towards rebuilding cities affected by fighting against militants in the country’s south, as well as donating 3000 rifles.
Upon receiving the weapons late last month, President Duterte hailed a “new dawn of a new era in Philippine-Chinese relations”.
Manila began to tilt away from its traditional ally, the US, and towards China after former President Obama criticised Duterte over his controversial drug war last July.
Despite this the US has maintained a strong presence in the region, sailing warships in the disputed territory to demonstrate freedom of navigation.
Foreign Ministers from the ASEAN countries and China will meet in Manila next week, and plan to endorse a draft code of conduct in the South China Sea.
Ahead of the meeting China has urged Southeast Asia nations to unite, and “say no to outside forces”, namely US interference in the region.
