Aquino likely to meet with Chinese president on Sunday – Del Rosario

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao wave as they arrive at the Apec Leaders’ Summit in Vladivostok, Russia Saturday. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario says the two are likely to meet Sunday on the sidelines of the summit. AP

RUSSKIY ISLAND, Vladivostok, Russia – President Benigno Aquino III is to meet with Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao during a break in the on-going Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (Apec) Leaders’ Summit.

This was confirmed Saturday by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario who said the meeting was most likely to be held Sunday.

“The format has been finalized. We’re still waiting for a final date and time as to when the meeting will take place. It will take place,” said Del Rosario after days of uncertainty on whether the Philippine and Chinese heads of state would seek each other out in this annual gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders.

As of 1:00 p.m. Saturday (Vladivostok time), Del Rosario said, the time of the meeting had yet to be finalized but it was most likely to be held on Sunday.

Del Rosario said there was no fixed agenda although the dispute over the Spratlys and Panatag Islands would obviously be included.

“Without pre-empting the discussion between the two presidents, I’d like to ask you to recall that in their last meeting [Asean meeting in Cambodia last March], when the President was invited for a state visit to China, there was an agreement that the disputes in the South China Sea are not the sum total of the relations. And what we’d like to happen is we’d like to go back to that agreement, which essentially states that both leaders will try to move forward the bilateral agenda and abstract the contentious issues and deal with that separately,” said Del Rosario.

In revisiting that agreement, Del Rosario said, the Philippines and China should finally agree on economic targets such as terms of trade and tourism between the two countries.

Barely 12 hours after arriving on board a brand new Airbus A320 of Philippine Airlines Friday night, Aquino engaged in a flurry of activities, including friendly talks with the leaders of Singapore and Chile.

Del Rosario said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reaffirmed his country’s support for a peaceful resolution to the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea to which the President expressed his gratitude.

“He also expressed the need for Asean to to strengthen its solidarity and its centrality in being able to reinforce the importance of Asean being an entity that would promote peace and stability in the region,” said Del Rosario.

After the meeting with Lee, Mr. Aquino met met with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique who expressed interest in hiring Filipino teachers to teach English in Chile and tapping the Philippines’ know-how in geothermal energy. For his part, Aquino expressed interest in adopting Chile’s tax policies, specifically on its robust mining industry.

The President attended the first of two so-called retreat sessions in the afternoon where he and 20 other world leaders led by Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down to exchange views on issues facing the Asia-Pacific region.

Malacañang has confirmed that Mr. Aquino is meeting with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Malaysia Prime Minister Dato Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razuk on Sunday.

The Apec summit is to formally end at 1 p.m. with President Aquino expected to fly home later in the afternoon.