MANILA: The Philippine government said yesterday its new ambassador to China had suffered a stroke, barely three months into her new posting and amid a territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
Veteran diplomat Sonia Brady, 71, who was picked to help ease tensions with China, was rushed to a Beijing hospital on Wednesday and is now recovering, said presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte.
When asked if the ailing Brady would be called home, Valte told reporters that “the thoughts and the opinions also of Ambassador Brady should be considered before anything like that happens”.
However, she later told AFP that “our focus is for her to get better,” adding that “(replacing her) was not even discussed”. She said Brady's condition was “stable” and that diplomatic relations would be unaffected as the embassy's charge d'affaires would take over while the ambassador is being treated.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario visited Brady in Beijing yesterday and saw that she was “recovering well,” foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a statement.
While he was there, Del Rosario also met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi for talks that were “productive,” Hernandez added.
“Issues of mutual concern were discussed in a positive atmosphere,” he said in a statement. He did not elaborate.
Hernandez earlier said that the embassy would continue with its mandate “to strengthen our bilateral relations with China,” even while Brady is in hospital.
Brady was chosen largely for her familiarity with Chinese culture and politics having already served as ambassador there from 2006 to 2010.
Philippine relations with China have deteriorated since April after ships from both countries faced off over the Scarborough Shoal, an outcropping of rocks in the South China Sea.
China claims the shoal along with most of the South China Sea, even up to the coasts of its Asian neighbors, while the Philippines claims the shoal as being well within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
The South China Sea is believed to hold vast mineral resources and are a major shipping route for the region.
n FROM: Agence France Presse
Philippine ambassador to China suffers stroke
