(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday acknowledged that the South China sea row was one of the challenges the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was facing.
Duterte, who spoke at the High Level Forum on ASEAN@50, said however, that “we are not in a hurry.”
“And as a matter of fact, what we did was really the correct step and to avoid confrontational talks with almost all of the parties concerned, just ask for a limited time to solve the problem and sharing of the resources if it could be done,” he said.
He noted that it was “not good to add something” that is a cause of “high tension” among some members of Asean.
“I hope Asean will grow strong and solve the serious problems confronting us,” Duterte said.