China and the Philippines held talks Friday on their South China Sea disputes, the first of their kind since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came to power last year, and agreed to seek "mutually acceptable approaches" with a view to resolving them, according to a joint statement issued by the two sides.

The meeting took place on the same day as Duterte claimed in Manila that China's President Xi Jinping had earlier warned him it would "go to war" if the Philippines "forces the issue" of an international arbitral tribunal ruling last year that invalidated Beijing's sweeping claims in the South China Sea.

Philippine delegation leader Jose Santiago Sta. Romana, the country's ambassador to China, told reporters that the ruling, which Duterte's government has downplayed in favor of improved ties with China, was brought up in Friday's talks.

"We touched on it, but we didn't dwell on it. We put it in the context of the bilateral relations," he told reporters after the one-day inaugural meeting of the "Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea," held in China's southwestern city of Guiyang.

In the joint statement, the two sides said they underscored the importance of "handling incidents and disputes in the South China Sea in an appropriate manner" and discussed "the promotion of next step practical maritime cooperation and the possible establishment of relevant technical working groups."

Last July, in a case brought by the previous Philippine government, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated China's claim to almost all of the South China Sea and concluded that it interfered with the traditional rights of Philippine fishermen by restricting their access to Scarborough Shoal.

"We raised it and we presented the Philippine position," Sta. Romana said, adding, "We didn't impose on the Chinese."

China has ignored the ruling and maintained its position that all disputes in the South China Sea should be resolved bilaterally by countries directly concerned through negotiations.

In his remarks in Manila, Duterte said Xi issued the war warning after he had expressed to the Chinese leader the determination of the Philippines to eventually drill for oil in an area of its exclusive economic zone.

"I said, 'Mr. Xi Jinping, I would insist that that is ours, and I will drill oil there'....He said, 'Well, if you force the issue, we'll be forced to tell you the truth...we will go to war, we will fight you'."

Sta. Romana said that in Friday's talks, the Philippine side specifically raised the issue of Scarborough Shoal, which China seized effective control over in 2012 and sometimes restricted Philippine fishermen's access to.

"There have been recent incidents at the South China Sea...that we raised with them because it is of concern," the ambassador said.

He citing the plight of Philippine fishermen and the behavior of the Chinese fishermen toward them in the vicinity of the shoal, which lies just 124 nautical miles from the coast of the Philippine main island of Luzon.

Since Duterte's fence-mending visit to Beijing last October, in which he held his first of three meetings so far with Xi, China's naval vessels have been withdrawn from shoal, though it maintains a coast guard presence there.

Sta. Romana stressed that differences between the Philippines and China cannot be solved in one session, but Friday's initial meeting was nevertheless an important step.

"To understand where each side is coming from is actually a good step in building a better foundation for the relations between the two countries," he said.

The meeting took place on the heels of Thursday's agreement by negotiators of China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on a framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea.