The Philippines and China will resume talks on a possible joint oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) at a "technical level," Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo bared. In an interview transcript shared by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to the media on Thursday, March 30, Manalo disclosed that the exploratory talks would begin in "around six weeks". According to Manalo, the Chinese government has made the proposal to resume once again the talks on the joint venture for oil and gas exploration. "They were proposing that we begin talks again on oil and gas. I think we will begin in maybe around 6 weeks but as I said at a technical level," Manalo said. The DFA chief explained that both governments would be discussing "basically terms of reference" and noted that  "there’s no document yet" signed for this discussion. He said it will only be an "exploratory" or "scoping" discussion. "And they will have to discuss the terms of reference, what kind of issues, I can foresee that there will still be lots of discussions," he said. "You will probably call it- well it’s a meeting, you can say exploratory or scoping, or seeing the scope of the discussion and we’ll see where it goes. But definitely we’re open to talks but as I said, we’ll always be guided by the requirements of the constitution," Manalo said. The meeting will be held between both countries' maritime officers, he further said. During President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s state visit to China in January this year, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping have both signified [willingness to resume the discussion on the oil and gas exploration](https://mb.com.ph/2023/1/4/marcos-xi-intend-to-resume-oil-gas-exploration-talks) in the WPS. Marcos stressed that the continuing negotiation for the joint exploration between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea is very important to the Philippines as the country needs the resources it could get from the sea.