South China Sea: New Philippine leader must honour joint exploration deal with Beijing or face conflict, says Duterte | South China Morning Post

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has told his successor that Manila must honour an agreement his administration made with China to jointly explore an area in the disputed South China Sea for oil and gas deposits - or face possible conflict. He said that in light of the presidential election taking place in May, someone "reminded me - I won't say who from China" that both sides already had an agreement on joint development of Reed Bank, also known as Recto Bank, which falls in a contested area of the South China Sea. An international tribunal ruling on Manila's unilateral challenge…