Duterte to use ‘sea ruling’ to warm China relations

Bloomberg

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday with a plan to play his ace card — an international ruling that invalidated some of Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea.
Duterte said he will use the Philippines’ 2016 internationaltribunal win against China, which he set aside to warm ties and tap Chinese funding, to negotiate a favorable deal with Xi to explore the disputed areas for oil.
“The first thing I will bring out before them is the arbitral ruling,” Duterte said in a speech. “We have to talk about the ruling and what we’ll get if there is a start in the exploration.”
While an oil deal where Manila gets a bigger share might appear to be a win for Duterte, it could undermine Philippine interests in the future because an agreement may give credence to China’s sea claim, said Collin Koh, research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.