Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte will visit Beijing next week to explore a way forward with China over the South China Sea (SCS) dispute amid his frayed ties with US President Barack Obama.
Confirming his visit, a jubilant China said today it looks to discuss the South China Sea (SCS) dispute with Duterte who stepped up engagement with China after a spat with Obama over his deadly campaign against drugs and extra judicial killings in the Philippines.
Announcing his visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang reiterated China's "consistent position" on the SCS without explicitly asserting Beijing's historic claims over 90 per cent of the area.
"We are wiling to deal with relevant dispute through dialogue with countries including Philippines to carry out pragmatic cooperation in the SCS making the it a sea of peace, friendship and development," Geng said.
The new Philippines President who is expected to be accompanied by over 250 business executives during his visit here from Oct 18 to 21 to strike business deals, will have wide range talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese leaders.
Geng said, "China expects that Duarte's visit can help to enhance political trust, deepen pragmatic cooperation, extend traditional friendship and deal with disputes properly through dialogue and bring the bilateral strategic cooperative for peace and development back to the track of sound development".
Duterte's visit was a seen a major gain for China in the aftermath of the July verdict of an international tribunal on the SCS quashing Beijing's claims on all most all of the SCS.
The verdict which as rejected by Beijing was in response to a Philippines petition under the UN Convention on Law of Seas, (UNCLOS) is backed by US and Japan which said the tribunal's judgement is binding on China to implement.
Besides the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan contests China's claims.
On the back foot after the verdict, China has considerably improved its relations with Vietnam with the recent visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and now looks to work out a deals with Philippines to relegate the dispute to background by proposing a joint development of the area.
Ahead of his visit to China, Duterte has already visited Vietnam to gauge Hanoi's future plans.
But at the same time he has not totally burnt his bridges with US as he is due to visit Washington's close ally Japan on October 25 to consolidate ties with Tokyo.
Japan and the Philippines signed an agreement in February under which Tokyo will transfer defence equipment and technology to the Philippines.
Chinese analysts view Duterte's visit here could change SCS dynamics and may seriously dent US Asia pivot push under which Washington plans to deploy over 60 percent of its naval assets, including the aircraft carriers in the region to check China's growing military might.
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