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THE Palace on Saturday welcomed the agreement between Philippines and China, who both agreed to work together to ensure peace and stability in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) despite territorial dispute.

The Palace in a statement said that joint agreement by Manila and Beijing will ease tensions in the West Philippine Sea so that all the claimant countries could talk on how to maintain peace and stability in the region.

“That is a good development. We should not let one issue get in the way of our good relations with China,” Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in an interview.

“This is a good development and it is our position that despite that misunderstandings of issues on the Kalayaan Group of Islands, all claimants are committed to have a peaceful solution and to work it out diplomatically,” she added.

Asked whether the recent development between the two will pave the way for President Benigno Aquino 3rd to visit China soon, the spokesman said, “the details are still being worked out by the Department of Foreign Affairs.”

The Palace said that the Philippines and China agreed to preserve their broad relations by not letting disputes over territory in the West Philippine Sea affect diplomatic ties.

It added that the Philippine Foreign secretary Albert del Rosario and his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi agreed that the two countries would work together to ensure stability in those waters.

Del Rosario’s three-day visit, which ended Saturday, was through an invitation of Yang.

Besides the Philippines, China and Vietnam, other claimant countries include Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

The Spratlys, a chain of barren, largely uninhabited islands, reefs and banks in the West Philippine Sea, are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas. It also has busy sea-lanes for global trade and commerce.



Beijing dialogue
In Washington, the top US military officer left for China Friday in a trip designed to bolster a fledgling security dialogue with Beijing, even as a US naval exercise in the West Philippine Sea threatens to upstage his visit.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, began the four-day tour that will include talks with senior officers and a visit to military units, officials said.

Mullen — who in May hosted his Chinese counterpart, People’s Liberation Army Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde — “looks forward to continuing the engagement and dialogue” with Chen in Beijing, the Pentagon said in a statement.

But the admiral’s trip coincides with a joint naval exercise set for Saturday with the US, Japanese and Australian navies in the West Philippine Sea, where China has asserted territorial claims.

US and Japanese officials said the exercise will include the Japanese destroyer Shimakaze, an American destroyer — the USS Preble — and a Royal Australian Navy patrol boat.

The ships will carry out communications training and other drills off Brunei, officials said.



Small-scale activity
The US Navy played down the exercise, with a spokeswoman calling it a small-scale, “low-level” activity on the sidelines of an international defense exhibition in Brunei.

Lieutenant Commander Tamara Lawrence told AFP it was a “passing exercise,” which typically includes flag semaphore drills, navigation and other exercises focused on “basic seamanship.”

China has objected to previous US naval drills in the area, and tensions in the strategic and resource-rich area have mounted in recent weeks.

The Philippines and Vietnam have expressed concern over what they call China’s increasingly assertive stance in the area.

Mullen’s visit also comes after the United States and the Philippines carried out joint naval exercises, which Manila and Washington insisted were aimed at deepening military ties and not related to worries over China.

China has insisted that it wants a peaceful resolution of territorial disagreements, but has warned Washington against involvement in the intensifying disputes in the region.

The trip to China is the first by a US chairman of the joint chiefs since 2007, officials said.

Mullen “has a wide range of meetings with senior military officials scheduled, including visits to PLA military units,” the Pentagon said.

The admiral was also due to address students at Renmin University in Beijing, it said.

As tensions in the area have mounted, the pace of China-US military exchanges have also picked up, with the former US defense secretary Robert Gates meeting Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in Singapore in early June, following a January visit by Gates to Beijing.

Gates warned last month that clashes could erupt in the West Philippine Sea unless nations with conflicting territorial claims adopt a mechanism to settle their disputes peacefully.

With report from AFP