{"id":31393,"date":"2014-11-12T20:58:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T12:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=31393"},"modified":"2014-11-13T02:06:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T18:06:03","slug":"pres-aquino-remains-upbeat-about-filipino-chinese-relations-after-brief-meeting-with-pres-xi-jinping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/12\/pres-aquino-remains-upbeat-about-filipino-chinese-relations-after-brief-meeting-with-pres-xi-jinping\/","title":{"rendered":"Pres. Aquino remains upbeat about Filipino-Chinese relations after brief meeting with Pres. Xi Jinping"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BEIJING,<\/a>
BEIJING, China \u2013 President Benigno S. Aquino III shares a light moment with PROC President Xi Jinping and Commonwealth of Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott during the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders\u2019 Meeting (AELM) Tree Planting Ceremony at the Summer Garden of the International Conference Center (ICC), Yanqi Lake in Beijing, People\u2019s Republic of China on Tuesday (November 11, 2014). Working with this year\u2019s theme: “Shaping the Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership.” APEC members have developed extensive and in-depth consensus on Advancing Regional Economic Integration, Promoting Innovative Development, Economic Reform and Growth, and Strengthening Comprehensive Connectivity and Infrastructure Development. (Photo by: Ryan Lim\/ Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BEIJING, China — President Benigno S. Aquino III and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a brief discussion on Tuesday about their respective countries\u2019 maritime disputes.<\/p>\n

The meeting was viewed to be an encouraging sign towards the improvement of bilateral relations between the Philippines and China.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday afternoon, President Aquino said he is thankful for the warm welcome extended to him by President Xi and for engaging him in a short dialogue on the sidelines of a tree-planting event at the conclusion of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the warmth was there\u2026 When we had the informal pull-aside after the tree-planting ceremony, there was the sincerity. There was a factual laying out of the attendant issues, and also where we were, where we are, and where we hope to be,\u201d President Aquino said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, I guess, in most of the general points, I think we had a meeting of the minds. But, again, the details of how to actually operationalize this are something that will have to be tasked to perhaps other levels on both sides,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

President Aquino and President Xi touched on the issue of the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) during their pull-aside meeting and both agreed to come up with \u201cconstructive\u201d ways to address the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me that we\u2019ve had good relations from, I think, was it generations? Decades? For a very long time, we\u2019ve had good relations. From all the previous leaders of our countries, we\u2019ve had good relations. Hopefully, we can go back to having good relations, or something to that effect. This was after the tree-planting ceremony, so (it lasted) probably about 10 minutes or so, while we were walking back to the building,\u201d the Chief Executive said.<\/p>\n

The meeting between the two leaders was unexpected, but President Aquino welcomed this positive development.<\/p>\n

The last time a high-level interaction took place between the leaders of China and the Philippines was when President Aquino met with then Chinese President Hu Jintao during the former\u2019s state visit in Beijing in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very glad that there was this opportunity to discuss and to have this dialogue with him, given the fact that the last time there was a high-level dialogue between a Philippine leader and a Chinese leader was when I had a state visit in 2011 and, of course, there were so many developments after that,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re glad that there was this opportunity, and for our part, we reiterated that the primary aim and ambition of the Philippine government is to address the issue of how to improve our people\u2019s lots in life. Anything that distracts from that mission is not something that we would want to pursue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

President Aquino also told Manila-based reporters in a separate interview that he did invite President Xi to visit the Philippines and asked for his and the other APEC leaders\u2019 support when the country hosts next year\u2019s summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t find any fault with the way they (China) hosted, especially the leaders\u2019 summit. The precision, the perfection, I think, sets a standard for us to try and at least match next year when we host APEC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING, China — President Benigno S. Aquino III and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a brief discussion on Tuesday about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":31412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}