China to participate in Manila Apec summit in November

CEBU CITY — “China will be here. China will be here.”

Thus said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura Del Rosario when asked if China would participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Economic Leader’s Meeting this November in Manila.

The Apec is composed of 21-member economies, including China.

“Nobody has missed an Apec meeting. Everybody has to be there,” Del Rosario said, citing that Apec is one of the biggest economic summits in the world aside from the G20 summit.

“They have to be there because they also want to meet one another, renew ties, discuss a lot of things among themselves and compare notes,” she added.

Tension between China and other Asian countries including the Philippines have risen due to the maritime dispute over certain parts of the oil-rich West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

China has been locked in a long standing maritime dispute with the Philippines including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan, which are all member-economies of Apec.

The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest before the United Nations (UN) International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas, but China has refused to respond to the protest and continued its massive reclamation over the disputed islands on the West Philippine Sea.

Despite this tension, Del Rosario said the Philippines is “very” prepared to host the Apec economic leaders’ summit come November. JE