MANILA, March 30 -- The Philippine and Chinese governments are set to begin talks on new "terms of reference" (TOR) for joint oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea after overall discussion for the cooperation was terminated under the previous administration, the country's top diplomat disclosed.

In a GMA interview transcript shared by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday, Secretary Enrique Manalo said the exploratory talks would be at a "technical level" and would begin in about six weeks.

"(China is) proposing that we begin talks again on oil and gas. I think we will begin in maybe around six weeks but as I said at a technical level. But those talks are going to begin discussing basically terms of reference, the...