Bilateral meeting between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai Guest House here in Beijing, China. | 📷 MPC Pool

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday evening met with China President Xi Jinping for their bilateral talks in Beijing for the second time this year and the two leaders witnessed the signing of six agreements between the two countries.

During the President’s fifth visit to China, the two leaders saw the signing of the funding for the South Long Haul Project of the Philippine National Railways.

In the meeting, Xi spoke first and told Duterte that he was happy to again see a longtime friend and noted that he was ready to cooperate with the Philippine leader.

The China President also brought up their schedule to watch the opening of the FIBA World Cup over the weekend.

Duterte, for his part, said that it was never too soon to meet a friend even if went to Beijing only in April and thanked Xi for China’s help in modernizing the Department of National Defense.

Duterte is in China to also raise the issue of the 2016 arbitral ruling which upheld the Philippines claims in the West Philippine Sea, the same decision that invalidated China’s excessive historical claims.

He was also expected to take up the 60-40 sharing in favor of the Philippines of resources that may be extracted from the joint exploration in the West Philippine Sea.