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Chinese President Xi Jinping greets his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, southeast of Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. Xi has made it to the world for the first time. in the Philippines to deepen its ties with the US ally. (Bullit Marquez / Associated Press)
MANILA, Philippines – Chinese President Xi Jinping received a welcome welcome to the Philippines on Tuesday, as he made his first visit to the US ally to treaties with infrastructure loan offers and new agreements designed to prevent clashes and possibly oil and gas exploration. the South China Sea disputed.
Xi met senior government and military officials in Manila, the last leg of a trip from three Asian countries in which he offers infrastructure loans, helps and defends free trade in a rivalry influence with the United States.
The courts were suspended in Manila and thousands of police officers were deployed to secure the one-night visit to Xi, which Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had once described as "grand president." Dozens of protesters on the left with signs saying "Philippines not for sale" and "Hands off our lands and seas" gathered in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila.
Xi's visit to the Philippines is the first of a Chinese president for 13 years.
"Our relations have now seen a rainbow after the rain," Xi said in a statement ahead of his visit, recalling that trade and contacts between Asian neighbors began more than 1,000 years ago. .
Relations between Beijing and Manila have stagnated as a result of long territorial divisions in the South China Sea until Duterte is elected president in mid-2016 and rebuilds ties with China while maintaining the pillars of China. US security policy in a dramatic pivot. The administration of Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, brought arbitration disputes with China over the strategic waterway, but China ignored the outcome.
Duterte refused to immediately demand that China comply with the landmark ruling, which invalidated China's major water claims, where Beijing turned a series of contentious reefs into island bases protected by missiles.
The rapprochement of Duterte opened a new era of relations with the Asian economic power, with which he sought trade and investment, financing infrastructure and weapons to fight insurgents. Western governments have strongly criticized Duterte's brutal crackdown on illicit drugs, but not China. Xi and Duterte have often been at the center of the concerns of human rights groups.
After a wreath-laying ceremony on Philippine national hero Jose Rizal's monument in a Manila resort park that was cordoned off by the police, Xi and his entourage will meet Duterte and the top Filipino officials later on Tuesday at the Malacanan Presidential Palace. , near.
Two Filipino officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Duterte's administration would likely sign a memorandum of understanding to support Beijing's "Belt and Road" initiative, an ambitious development program. infrastructure loans criticized by the United States as endangering debt of indebted nations.
The Philippine government will not likely immediately accept proposals for oil and gas exploration in disputed waters, but could sign an agreement "to explore maritime cooperation" and create a committee and working group to to hasten the discussions likely to lead to a joint decision. hunt for submarine fuel deposits, said officials, who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the sensitive issue.
China has called for a so-called "maritime and air link mechanism", an arrangement for the two countries' forces to coordinate their naval and air movements to prevent "incidents" in the disputed waters, but defense officials Philippines opposed this proposal, officials said.
Philippine nationalists have warned that any deal that would undermine the exclusive rights to fish and exploit Philippine-recognized resources internationally within 200 nautical miles of the country's shores would violate the Philippine constitution.
"The Philippines should not give up our sovereign rights, as stipulated by the arbitration decision," said Senior Judge Antonio Carpio, who has conducted numerous studies on territorial disputes.
In addition to their trade disputes, China and the United States fought for the South China Sea. The Chinese authorities have asked Washington to renounce a purely Asian conflict, but the United States has pledged to maintain its presence in the waters, having no pretensions, but to continue their naval patrols to promote freedom of navigation and overflight.
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