Perfecto Yasay said he had met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of a summit of Asian and European leaders on the weekend and after raising the topic of last week's ruling, it became clear that was a no-go area.
"They said if you will insist on the ruling, discussing it along those lines, then we might be headed for a confrontation," Yasay said during an interview with the news channel of broadcaster ABS-CBN.
"But I really honestly feel that this is something they have to make on a public basis but I also sensed there was room for us to talk very quietly using backdoor channelling."
Yasay said Yi had proposed bilateral talks but only on issues "outside, or (in) disregard of, the arbitral ruling," which he declined because it was not in the Philippines' national interests.
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