Japan urges China against escalating East China Sea tension

FORMER President Fidel V. Ramos will fly to Beijing on Monday for initial talks with Chinese authorities on the peaceful resolution of the dispute over the West Philippine Sea between the Philippines and China.

Duterte’s spokesman Ernie Abella also confirmed Ramos’s trip to Hong Kong, saying he would “meet with old friends and possibly (play) a few rounds of golf”.

Even before his appointment as special envoy to China by President Duterte, Ramos – an avid golfer – has been a frequent visitor of China’s Hainan province, which boasts of world-class golf courses.

Asked if he would bring up the decision of the UN-linked Permanent Court of Arbitration, Ramos said “it is not up to me to bring it up because that is not my mission”.

“It is not me who will raise that issue”, he told a news conference in Manila before his flight.

Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang aired their differences at a meeting last month, including over the South China Sea.

Officials of both countries would hold formal talks, he added.

“The Air Force is organizing normalized South China Sea combat patrols, practising tactics. increasing response capabilities to all kinds of security threats and safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime interests”, Shen said. “But since this assignment came at a rather short time, it will also take time to contact these people that we want to talk to about peace, harmony and goodwill between China and the Philippines”, the former leader said.

Mr. Ramos, 88, said his trip will be four to five days.

Ramos is probably the best choice for the job of breaking ice since he is a revered statesman widely respected in his own country and in Asia. It has strongly criticized the U.S. for encouraging its treaty partner in taking legal action and calling for Beijing to respect the ruling. The communist country has remained defiant after an worldwide tribunal ruled against its expansion activities in the South China Sea, where about $5 trillion in global trade transits annually.

He will be accompanied by his wife, Amelita, his nephew Samuel Ramos Jones, his former interior secretary Rafael M. Alunan III, and former ABC News China bureau chief Chito Sta.

The air force didn’t say when the exercises took place, but after the July 12 arbitration ruling, the air force had said such patrols would be “a regular practice”.