Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman and Assistant Secretary Charles Jose. AFP FILE PHOTO
There is no need for the government to send China a special invitation to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit to be hosted by the Philippines in November, as no invitations are issued to the annual gathering which all Apec heads of state and government are expected to attend, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
“There is no special invitation. It will be the same for all the countries. But we would like to see all leaders of the Apec economies to attend the leaders’ meeting in Manila,” said DFA spokesman, Assistant Secretary Charles Jose.
He said the Philippines and the Apec secretariat have yet to receive final confirmation on who will be attending the Apec Leaders’ Summit scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19 in Manila.
Around 200 meetings have been conducted and will be held in the country this year in the months leading up to the two-day November meeting of top Asia-Pacific leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the other heads of Apec member economies.
The DFA said it was hopeful that the state of relations between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea will not affect China’s attendance.
“China is the second-largest economy in the world. It’s an important economy in the region. We believe that the meeting will benefit from China’s participation,” Jose said.
Meanwhile, the DFA has expressed satisfaction with the results of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Asean foreign ministers’ meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last week.
“We wanted the inclusion of the South China Sea issue in the (discussions and the concluding statement). We are happy with the formulation that was used,” said Jose.
Asean foreign ministers, before the close of the three-day meeting, adopted a joint communique that strongly criticized China’s island-building frenzy in the South China Sea.
But the conclusion of a legally binding Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea between China and Asean was still a long way off, Jose admitted.
“Many countries would like to move forward and talk about the elements, structure and the framework of the COC,” he said.
But the joint working group tapped to discuss the COC has yet to move from philosophical discussions, he said.
No deadline has been set for the COC, but at least one country has suggested that Asean and China put a time frame for its conclusion.
“Everyone, however, agreed that we should fast-track this,” Jose said.