Chinese Foreign Minister holds talks with US, Philippines at ASEAN

Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

and Philippines Foreign Secretary

Theresa Lazaro in separate talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN

Foreign Ministers' meeting.

Wang's meeting with Rubio marks the highest-level contact

between the US and China since the nations respective

heads of states met in Beijing in May.

This while Wang's meeting with his Filipino counterpart

comes at a time of increasing tension between the nations

amid recent shakeup in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Wang,

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

says a planned trip to the US

by President Xi Jinping was among the

topics discussed.

He furthers both sides have differences but their job is to manage

them, and there are areas of potential cooperation.

“I think President Xi will have a very positive visit when he comes to Washington.

Look, these are the most powerful countries in the world especially in particular

in economics. But also, we have to have a relationship.

Obviously there are areas of great differences both sides, I'll will acknowledge that.

We'll have to work through those. I think these differences will exist in the foreseeable

future. Our job is sort out, to manage those so they never get out of control.

Obviously I'll always defend our national interest and I expect they'll do the same

as they defend theirs. But I think there are some areas of potential cooperation. So the

work we need to do now between September is to identify what those areas are

so we can lay the groundwork for very a positive visit to Washington in September.

And so we talked a lot about that,” says Rubio.

Rubio, Wang, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the European Union

will attend a final forum Thursday called the East Asia Summit,

where 18 Western and Asian countries, including the 11-nation ASEAN,

will tackle geopolitical, economic and security concerns.

Philippine Foreign Secretary and chair of the meeting

Theresa Lazaro and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi

also sat together, just days after a tense incident near the disputed

Ren'ai Jiao in the South China Sea.

The Philippine military on Monday accused China's Coast Guard of allegedly

injuring a Filipino sailor.

China responded by claiming two rubber boats belonging to an

"illegally" stationed Filipino vessel had rammed the Chinese patrol boat

"in a dangerous manner."

During an earlier meeting Tuesday, Wang said China stands

ready to work with ASEAN to remove disruptive factors, though certain

forces within the Philippine military and maritime law enforcement ranks have

deliberately provoked incidents in the South China Sea to serve the interests

of external forces, undermining the process.

ASEAN ministers are scheduled to meet Wang with an agenda that

includes a discussion on the status of negotiations

between China and the regional bloc on a proposed pact called a

"code of conduct," which aims to prevent territorial disputes in

the South China Sea from spiralling out of control.