Aquino to meet Chinese leader Sunday; territorial row on agenda

President Benigno Aquino III and President Hu Jintao. INQUIRER CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/AP

VLADIVOSTOK—President Aquino will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the 20th Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (Apec) Leaders’ Summit here on Sunday and the discussions could cover their countries’ territorial disputes, according to the Philippines’ top diplomat.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters on Saturday that the time and date of Mr. Aquino’s meeting with Hu had not been set but it would most likely be held on Sunday.

Del Rosario said there was no fixed agenda for the meeting, but the talks would likely touch on the disputes between the Philippines and China over some islands in the Spratly chain and the Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Philippine and Chinese ships were locked in a standoff for more than two months at Panatag Shoal, 220 kilometers west of Zambales, after Philippine authorities accosted Chinese fishermen for alleged poaching. Both the Philippines and China claim the rich fishing grounds.

The Philippine vessels left the area in mid-June due to stormy weather, but Del Rosario has said they may return when the weather clears.

Previous agreement

“Without preempting the discussion between the two presidents, I’d like to ask you to recall that in their last meeting (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia in 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,” Del Rosario said.

Thanking Singapore

In revisiting that agreement, Del Rosario said, the Philippines and China should finally agree on economic targets, including trade and tourism.

Mr. Aquino and Hu are attending the Apec leaders’ summit on Russkiy Island, on the Pacific Ocean off the Russian port city of Vladivostok, on Saturday and Sunday.

Just hours after arriving on a chartered Philippine Airlines Airbus A320 on Friday night, Mr. Aquino set out for summit business, including bilateral talks with the leaders of Singapore and Chile.

Del Rosario said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reaffirmed his country’s commitment to support a peaceful resolution of the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea, and President Aquino thanked him.

English teachers for Chile

“He also expressed the need for Asean 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,” Del Rosario said.

After the Singapore meeting, Mr. Aquino met Chilean President Sebastian Piñera Echenique, who expressed interest in hiring Filipino teachers to teach English in Chile and tapping the Philippines know-how in geothermal energy.

“We are being asked to consider bringing in teachers who can teach English to a larger part of the population in Chile,” Del Rosario said. “We are also being invited to look into a cooperation in aquaculture.”

Del Rosario said Chile was particularly interested in establishing a deeper partnership in geothermal-energy development with the Philippines, the world’s second biggest user of geothermal power.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, a member of the Philippine delegation, said Piñera was surprised that much of the Philippine’s geothermal energy was in private hands.

“In Chile, they are still looking at a significant government role,” Almendras said. “They were quite impressed with the private sector involvement [in the Philippines] because they said they were having difficulties doing that there in Chile.”

Almendras said the Philippines promised to help Chile work on a regulatory framework and “some of the things we have done to encourage investments.”

Best practices

Del Rosario said President Aquino expressed interest in adopting Chile’s tax policies, specifically on mining.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, also a member of the Philippine delegation, said the Philippines was looking to adopt the best practices of Chile in taxing the mining industry.

“Chile is the world’s largest exporter of copper and a few years ago they revised the scheme of taxation of their mining industry, that is, [to] one that recognizes the volatility of mining prices. So this is one that we would like to study,” Purisima said.

In July, President Aquino signed Executive Order No. 79 to implement sweeping reforms in the mining industry, including a tougher ban on mining at 78 sites, a moratorium in new permits, and a push for a higher government share in mining profits.

Purisima said Chile had sent some technical advisers to the Philippines to help the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which has been hard pressed to meet collection goals in the last two years.

Chilean invitation

“The President of Chile also invited the President to visit Chile as part of furthering our bilateral relations,” Purisima said.

Piñera has traveled to the Philippines three times as a private citizen, Purisima said.

President Aquino attended the first of two retreat sessions in the afternoon where he and 20 other world leaders led by the summit host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, sat down to exchange views on issues facing the Asia-Pacific region. With a report from AP