MANILA — The Philippines' diplomatic efforts with China on the West Philippine Sea row are heading in a "poor direction," President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said, stressing the need for a "paradigm shift."

Marcos pointed out that traditional diplomatic moves such as sending notes verbales after every incident in the West Philippine Sea has proven futile.

"[W]e have been doing this for many years now, with very little progress,” Marcos said on Saturday, according to a release by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).

"We have to do something [that] we have not done before. We have to come up with a new concept, a new principle, a new idea so that we move, as I say, we move the needle the other way," he said of tension in the South China Sea.

"It’s going up, let’s move the needle back, so that paradigm shift is something that we have to formulate," Marcos said.

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NEED FOR NEW SOLUTIONS IN DECADES-OLD ROW

Marcos earlier told Japanese media that the Philippines and the region need to find new solutions to issues in the South China Sea, where the West Philippine Sea is located, which he called "the most complex geopolitical challenge that the world faces."

China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea which is part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

China has rejected a 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidates its nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea.

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Marcos also said that the Philippines would continue talking to its partners in the Indo-Pacific region — and to the rest of the world, if necessary — to cool down the tensions.

"We do not want to go to the point where there are incidents that might cause an actual violent conflict. Maybe from a mistake or a misunderstanding and these things happen all the time," Marcos said.

"And so, we have, in my review, it’s time that the countries that feel that they have an involvement in this situation, we have to come up with a paradigm shift," he said.

Marcos was in Japan to attend the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - Japan Relations.