JAKARTA, Indonesia — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has told Chinese Premier Li Qiang that the Philippines will "continue to push for cooperation with China despite Beijing's coercive activities" in the South China Sea.

The two met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-China Summit earlier this week, where Marcos underscored the need for an international law-based Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

During the main ASEAN Summit, Marcos raised concerns about "hegemonic ambitions" in the South China Sea. He urged other Southeast Asian leaders to find "practical" ways to protect the bloc's interests in the strategic waterway.

"The President said the Philippines will continue to push for cooperation with China and work towards more partnerships and collaboration," the statement from the Presidential Communications Office read.

"He earlier said that he is pleased with the latest developments in the negotiations for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea and that the Philippines will assert its rights in accordance with international law," it added.

Marcos said the Philippines still believes that the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS and the rule of law should be used to settle maritime conflicts.

Before the ASEAN-China Summit, Marcos called out "misleading stories that frame the disputes in the SCS only through the lens of strategic competition between two powerful countries."

Marcos last talked to a high-level Chinese official at the ASEAN Summit with China.

At the same time, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro stressed that the Philippines needs an independent foreign policy amid increasing tensions with China in the West Philippine Sea and its expanded 10-dash line map.

"We need China because it is a huge market. But if the competition is fair, and they don't claim our territory, there would be no problem," he said in Filipino.