Del Rosario exercising restraint with China over expo

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario admitted yesterday having great difficulty exercising restraint for what was done to President Aquino when Beijing withdrew the invitation for the Chief Executive to attend the 10th ASEAN-China Expo (CAEXPO) in Nanning month.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced on Thursday that the President would not be attending the CAEXPO after Chinese officials requested that Aquino visit China at a “more conducive” time.

This year, the Philippines is designated as the “country of honor” at the CAEXPO that will be held from Sept. 3 to 6. The head of the country of honor usually attends the international trade fair.

“As may be evident, we are all having the greatest of difficulties in exercising restraint for what they had done to our President. But let us endeavor to restrain ourselves, for now,” Del Rosario said.

Sources told The STAR that China had asked the Philippines to withdraw first the case filed by Manila in the arbitral tribunal challenging China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea before Aquino’s visit.

Sources also said that Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing conveyed to the Philippine side that Aquino was not welcome in China.

DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said that the Philippines will continue to abide by its principled position that bilateral relations can advance despite differences.

He reiterated that the Philippines urged China to consider the rules-based approach to the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) issue and this rules-based approach is a two-pronged approach, which is advocating the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea and pursuing the arbitral case with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in order to resolve the maritime dispute.

But Hernandez said the Chinese Foreign Ministry indicated that this would be a “hard sell for constituents of China at this time.”

China’s asking the President to visit at a more conducive time is contrary to its pronouncement that maritime disputes between China and some Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states “should not, and will not, undermine” the overall relationship.

The Chinese embassy in Manila declined to respond when asked whether China had withdrawn the invitation for Aquino to attend the CAEXPO and about Beijing’s request that the President visit at a more conducive time.