South China Morning Post
16 November 2015
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Sights Set Low for Xi-Aquino Meeting
Sights Set Low for Xi-Aquino Meeting
The presidents of China and the Philippines are to sit down for their first official talks this week on the sidelines of a regional economic summit amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea.
Few concessions would be made by either side on territorial claims, but they might agree to look into a risk management mechanism and strengthen economic ties, analysts said.
President Xi Jinping will join 20 other heads of states – including Barack Obama and Shinzo Abe – at the two-day Apec leaders’ meeting that begins on Wednesday in Manila. It will be Xi’s first trip to the Philippines since becoming president in 2013, and most likely the final opportunity for its leader, Benigno Aquino, to hold bilateral talks with Xi before Aquino leaves office in June next year.
… They would have “at least a short meeting” on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this time, said Li Mingjiang from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“Aquino certainly has the interest to engage with Xi in a formal meeting,” Li said. “It’d be inappropriate for Xi to decline such an arrangement while he is the guest in Manila.”
IDSS / GPO / Online
