Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday sent a congratulatory letter to Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos on his taking office as the 17th president of the Philippines.

Marcos was sworn in as the Southeast Asian country's president earlier on Thursday.

Xi mentioned his recent phone call with the Philippine president, in which an important consensus on adhering to good-neighborly friendship and joint development between the two countries had been reached. 

Xi added that he's willing to work with Marcos to grasp the general direction of bilateral relations' development from a strategic and long-term perspective, and continue to write a great article on China-Philippines friendly cooperation in the new era, so as to benefit the two countries and the two peoples.