Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. "Essentially, we tried to come up with mechanisms to lower the tensions in the South China Sea," Marcos said on Saturday after the meeting. The two countries have recently seen heightened tensions over disputed islands in the area.
"I do not think anybody wants to go to war," Marcos said. He noted that there are "problems" in bilateral relations but that the current crisis "should not be the defining element of our relationship" and that he and Xi searched for ways to diffuse the tensions.
