MANILA, Philippines — China has offered to hold joint military drills with the Philippines,Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said.
Speaking to reporters after a Chinese Embassy event on Wednesday, Brawner said the offer came from Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian.
“They said they have submitted some white papers. We will have to study it,” Brawner told reporters in an ambush interview, adding that the offer was just “informal”.
No further details were provided by Brawner.
This development comes despite the territorial dispute between two countries due to China’s assertion that it has jurisdiction over almost the entire South China Sea.
In 2013, the Philippines challenged before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Beijing’s claim that it owned more than 80 percent of the entire South China Sea which overlaps with the Philippines 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In 2016, the PCA invalidated China’s claim to almost the entire South China Sea, ruling that China’s claim had no basis in international law and that it had violated the Philippines’ sovereign right to fish and explore resources in the West Philippine Sea, the waters within the country’s 370-kilometer EEZ in the South China Sea.