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NEW YORK CITY —Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Wednesday (Manila time) the Philippines has benefited more from Japan than China despite closer ties with the latter.

Asked by former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd about the Philippines-China relations, he said, “Yes, we sign up to this and that agreement but they hardly materialize."

“They hardly materialize and if you would compare to Japanese investments and official assistance—[it's] nothing,” Locsin said of the Philippines' agreements with China.

The country's top diplomat was in New York for the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. He spoke before the Asia Society, where Rudd is the policy institute president.

Locsin said the Japanese government was “pouring it in” with assistance. He made this remark during a discussion with Asia Society in New Yok City on Tuesday afternoon.

“If there is such a thing as a rising China, there’s apparently a phenomenon… of a rising Japan and we’re feeling that,” he said.

“Not only that but military assistance. We get what…10 [military] ships?”

Data from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) showed that Japan’s total official development assistance (ODA) as of March 19 was at $8.26 billion, which is 46 percent of the total ODA that the Philippines has received.

While Japan is the top ODA fund source of the Philippines, China is at eighth place, after the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United States, Korea, Australia, and the United Nations.

China’s total ODA to the Philippines is at $364 million or only 2 percent of total ODA.