'Balanced diplomacy' favored

The Philippines' incoming Foreign Affairs Secretary said he favors a "balanced diplomacy" with the United States and China while seeking economic cooperation with Beijing.

Perfecto Yasay made the remarks in an interview published on Monday by the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi.

The newspaper said that unlike the Aquino administration, which does not trust China, Yasay attaches importance to communicating with China.

Yasay said the South China Sea issue is not related to the military agreement between Manila and Washington, signed in 2014, that allowed US troops to remain in the Philippines.

He also said the South China Sea issue is not a military competition with Manila backed by Washington, adding that he hoped to "solve the issue through peaceful negotiation".

Yasay told journalists on Monday that bilateral talks with China are necessary to resolve territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

"I don't think that there is another way of resolving this dispute except by talking to each other," he said.

The last time the two countries held talks was during the visit of Philippines President Benigno Aquino III in Beijing in 2014.

Philippines president-elect Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday, while meeting with overseas Chinese who supported him during his campaign, that China will be the first stop of his foreign visits after taking office on June 30, according to local Philippine paper Chinese Commercial News.

The report quoted Duterte as saying he does not see issues of the South China Sea and Huangyan Island, over which Beijing and Manila have overlapping claims, as a big problem.

Leaders of the two countries can solve the dispute, he said.

Xu Liping, a researcher on Southeast Asian studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new Philippines government will revise Aquino's policy, which overemphasizes security affairs, and instead make development a priority.

"It is the right time for a turning point in bilateral relations," he said.

Xu added that many projects proposed by the economic team of Duterte, such as railway, port and airport construction, are in urgent need of funding from China's Belt and Road Initiative and the Silk Road Fund.

The Philippines newspaper Business Mirror said the incoming Department of Finance had signaled its intention "to fast-track the Philippines' inclusion in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank".

lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn