The governments of China and the Philippines say they’re moving toward cooperative offshore oil and gas exploration.
The countries have been locked in a territorial dispute over parts of the South China Sea.
The island nation won an arbitration challenge to China’s claim to most of the sea in 2016. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam also dispute the Chinese claim.
Last year, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte approved negotiations with the Chinese government over the possibility of joint exploration (OGJ Online, Aug. 17, 2017).
After a meeting this month with Philippine Foreign Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano, Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, told reporters the countries will “in a prudent and steady way advance cooperation on offshore oil and gas exploration.”
Cayetano said the talks yielded “very positive momentum.”
