Philippines-China relations: will 3-way summit with US, Japan further erode Manila-Beijing ties?

Observers have also speculated that the main reason behind the two-day summit is to strengthen maritime defensive efforts to counter China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the Asia-Pacific.

Romualdez said topics to be discussed during the meeting would include defence and security cooperation, addressing emerging and traditional security threats in the maritime domain, economic and technological cooperation, and clean energy.

China has competing claims in the South China Sea not only with the Philippines but also Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

Beijing has refused to accept the ruling.

In 2012, China imposed tighter controls over banana imports from the Philippines after Manila took Beijing to the international court alleging that Chinese naval vessels had obstructed the Philippines’ entry to Scarborough Shoal.

Banana exports from the Philippines to China stood at US$406 million in 2022, according to data from Boston-based data visualisation site the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

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Why the South China Sea dispute remains one of the region’s most pressing issues

Marcos Jnr on Monday expressed hope for an end to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea — Manila’s name for the parts of the South China Sea that fall within its exclusive economic zone — after the joint military exercises, saying Philippine officials were continuing to talk to their Chinese counterparts to prevent tensions from escalating.

“We continue to talk at a ministerial level, at a sub-ministerial level, at a people-to-people level, so that there will be no collisions and water cannoning,” he said.

On the same day as the maritime drills, Beijing announced it would conduct similar exercises in the waterway.

On Monday, however, Philippine armed