China-Philippine relations ‘never been better’, says ex-president Gloria Arroyo
- All-round cooperation over past two years ‘perhaps as good as it has ever been’, former leader says
- Comments come a day after nations sign 29 deals, including one to cooperate on oil and gas development in South China Sea
Relations between China and the Philippines might never have been better, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former president of the Southeast Asian country, said on Wednesday, reinforcing her long-time positive stance on Beijing.
“The all-round cooperation between China and the Philippines over the past two years has been very good indeed, perhaps as good as it has ever been,” she told Chinese President Xi Jinping on the final day of his visit to Manila.
President for more than nine years until 2010, Arroyo, who is now speaker of the House of Representatives, said she supported and applauded the strategic and comprehensive relationship her successor Rodrigo Duterte was taking with China.
“It is similar … to the approach to China that I took when I was president,” she told Xi, whom she last met before he became China’s leader.
Xi said he appreciated Arroyo’s contribution to the friendship between the two countries, praising her as “an old and good friend of the Chinese people”.
“I hope the [Philippine] congress and the Senate can play a bigger role in promoting the relationship,” he said, using a colloquial term for the House of Representatives.