South China Sea: can the Philippines emulate China-India border deal to defuse tensions?

“If India and China can agree on peace after decades of lethal encounters, then the Philippines and China can certainly work together to de-escalate tensions in the West Philippine Sea,” she told the Inquirer newspaper on Friday.

The West Philippine Sea is Manila’s term for the parts of the South China Sea that are included in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours have a long-standing territorial dispute along the 3,440km Line of Actual Control, with a history of stand-offs and a border war in 1962.