China's envoy to the Philippines is expecting that the two countries will develop trust and understanding towards each other soon after President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s meeting to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, next year.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said Wednesday that China is already "working very hard to prepare" for the state visit that will happen on January 3, 2023.

"We have come a long way in the past six years in our bilateral relations. What we have achieved in the past six years, we are working to deepen our cooperation in various fields to bring more benefits to our two peoples," Huang said during the Pandesal Forum, where he was asked about the developments in preparation for Marcos' visit.

Huang said he hopes that the two leaders would build on the four areas of cooperation the two governments have already started—namely agriculture, infrastructure, energy and people-to-people exchanges.

This, as he noted that the Philippines is now "on its way to its modernization," just like China.

"We can become very good partners in helping each other in supporting each other," he said, saying the friendship between the Philippines and China is now "millennium-old."

Aside from developing a "closer relationship," Huang said he hopes that the two countries would learn to "handle differences" following Marcos' trip to China.

He hoped that the Philippine-China relationship "will not be defined by specific differences" as the two countries still have competing claims over the South China Sea.

"I think we will have develop more maritime cooperation in the future so that we can promote more trust and understanding between our sides," he said.

"So we expect there'll be more constructive, more fruitful in the action between our two presidents and let's look forward to that," he added.