Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the Philippine government of repeatedly breaking a consensus over their intensifying dispute in the South China Sea.

In a meeting on Friday with Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo on the margins of a regional forum in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, Wang also warned the Philippines against the deployment of a US intermediate missile system on its soil, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a report on Saturday. At a time when ties between the two sides are strained, “it is not easy to build good relations, but it is easy to destroy them”, it said, citing Wang.

Top envoys from Southeast Asia and partner nations are meeting in Laos to discuss pressing security issues from the war in Ukraine to the civil conflict raging in Myanmar. Wang is also expected to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday afternoon.

Tensions in the South China Sea are among the major topics expected to be discussed in Vientiane. The Philippines said on July 21 that it had reached an understanding with China on the resupply of Philippine troops stationed on a dilapidated World War II-era ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, in the contested Spratly Islands. The ship, in the Second Thomas Shoal, has been at the centre of tensions between the two nations.

Manila didn’t elaborate on the interim pact but hours later both countries were at odds over the details of the arrangement. The Philippine government disputed a Chinese claim that Beijing would monitor the missions and must be informed in advance if Manila sends “living necessities” to troops on the ship.

On Saturday, the Philippines said it had conducted its first resupply mission to the Sierra Madre since the agreement, without interference from Chinese vessels.

  - Bloomberg