(Eagle News) — China’s President Xi Jinping has sent his congratulatory message to the Philippines’ president elect former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr on his election as president, adding to the list of world leaders who recognized the landslide win of the son of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
China and the Philippines are neighbors facing each other across the sea and partners through thick and thin, China’s Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying,
In recent years, with the joint efforts of both sides, the bilateral relations have been consolidated and enhanced, bringing benefits to the people of both countries and contributing to regional peace and stability, Xi added.
The Chinese president called up Marcos on Wednesday, May 11, and told the Philippines’ president-elect and stressed the strong partnership between the two countries.
“I attach great importance to the development of China-Philippine relations and am willing to establish a good working relationship with President-elect Marcos, adhere to good neighbourliness and friendship,” Xi said.
China’s ambassador to the Philippines has also congratulated Marcos Jr for his victory in the presidential election, expressing confidence that ties between the two nations would be “stronger”, a statement said Thursday.
“I have no doubt that under the next administration, our bilateral relations will only become stronger, our peoples closer and our cooperation deeper and wider,” Huang Xilian said in the statement.
Popularly known as Bongbong, the son of the late president Marcos, secured more than half of the votes in Monday’s election to win the presidency by a wide margin and cap a remarkable comeback for his family.
He and his running mate Sara Duterte, who also won the vice presidential race in a landslide, have embraced key policies of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.
Under Duterte, Manila’s previously frosty relations with Beijing warmed.
Ahead of the elections, Marcos said he would seek “engagement” with China rather than confrontation over their rival claims in the South China Sea.
“We won’t solve our problem with China if we fight them,” Marcos said in February.
“President Duterte’s engagement approach is correct because in my opinion that is the only way to resolving our conflicting claims with China.”
China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea and has ignored the 2016 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that its historical claim is without basis.
It has reinforced its stance by building artificial islands over some contested reefs and installing weapons on them.
Apart from the Philippines and China, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam are also laying claim to parts of the contested sea.
with an Agence France-Presse report