The two states have long been embroiled in a bitter dispute over the waterway – with China claiming nearly the entire sea – but President Duterte has in recent years softened his predecessors’ policy of opposing Beijing’s claims. The countries will “in a prudent and steady way advance cooperation on offshore oil and gas exploration,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters after meeting Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano. “The South China Sea disputes will no longer be a source of negative energy blocking the development of bilateral ties,” he added. The Philippines said earlier this month it was in talks with a Chinese state firm over joint exploration and extraction in the strategic and supposedly resource-rich sea.

PH, China agree on 'prudent' joint oil, gas exploration. (2018, March 23). Manila Bulletin, pp. 1, 6.