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China open for discussion regarding West PH Sea

MANILA, Philippines: China has allowed former Philippine President Fidel Ramos to come to Beijing and discuss the ruling in last month’s international arbitration panel. The Philippines has won over China’s South China Sea maritime claims.

In a statement Friday, Ramos said he met with the Chinese legislature’s foreign affairs chief Fu Ying in Hong Kong together with a leading government-backed scholar on the dispute. Both parties agreed to discuss matters through talks to reduce tension.

However, the former Philippine president said the ruling had not been directly discussed, adding there was no indication of when the talks with Beijing might be held and that another negotiator might take his place.

The panel in Hague, Netherlands ruled China’s claims had no basis in the international law.

In a report in Business World, International security expert Stephen P. Cutler, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attaché at the US embassy in Manila, said Mr. Ramos’ engaging China in an “exploratory capacity” was a “very good way to move forward.”

“Both the Philippines and China need to work together [as] neighbors, I think both need to treat each other as equals, and try to work together on matters of mutual interests and mutual benefits. Sovereignty [issues] will be resolved one of these days but I don’t think that should stop the mutual work,” Mr. Cutler said in a phone interview on Friday.

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