Following US President Joe Biden’s phone call to probable President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to congratulate him on his apparent election victory, another international leader has picked up the phone to talk with the former senator.

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines stated that President Xi Jinping of China called Marcos Jr. recently to discuss bilateral relations between the Philippines and China.

According to the embassy’s readout of the call, Xi called Marcos Jr. a “builder, supporter, and promoter of the China-Philippines friendship” and urged the poll frontrunner to continue the relationship and “write a grand story on the China-Philippines friendship in the new era and follow through the blueprint for bilateral friendly cooperation, so as to usher in an even brighter future for the bilateral ties.”

“It wasn’t the typical congratulatory message. We discussed a lot of things. We talked about the way forward for the China-Philippine relationship. So it was very good, very substantial,” Marcos Jr. said.

In addition, the putative President-elect stated that he proposes that China and the Philippines enhance their bilateral commercial connections to encompass culture, education, knowledge, and health.

It’s a fascinating development, especially given the elephant in the room: China and the Philippines’ long-running maritime dispute over lands in the West Philippine Sea. China has continued to disregard a 2016 Hague tribunal judgement in favour of the Philippines, which recognised the country’s sovereignty over territories inside its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and stated that China has no historical claims to the South China Sea.