BEIJING (Sputnik) — China hopes that the newly elected Philippine government will make substantial efforts to improve the country's relationship with China and to settle ongoing disputes, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Tuesday.
"We did everything in our power to maintain the overall level of our relations, but in recent years for various reasons, bilateral relations faced huge challenges. We hope that the new Philippine government will work with us to solve the existing disputes in [a] rational way and take substantial measures to put bilateral relations on a path of stable development," Lu Kang told journalists at a briefing.
The official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry also expressed hope for "a bright future" of bilateral relations, adding that China attaches extreme importance to its relations with the Philippines.
In January 2013, the Philippines unilaterally appealed to The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the resolution of a territorial dispute with China in a number of areas of the South China Sea. Later, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague decided that it has jurisdiction to hear the case.
Official Beijing categorically refuses to take part in the proceedings and would prefer to resolve the dispute bilaterally, calling the Philippine action a "political farce." The Chinese Foreign Ministry claims that the international court does not have the jurisdiction to solve territorial disputes.
