The Philippines’ top diplomat appeared to walk back claims that Manila would be willing to share natural resources with Beijing in the disputed South China Sea — even if it wins a legal challenge next week, a brief statement on the Philippine Foreign Ministry’s website said Saturday.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay told Agency France-Presse in an interview Friday that the administration of new President Rodrigo Duterte “hoped to quickly begin direct talks with China” following Tuesday’s verdict, with an eye on jointly exploiting natural gas reserves and fishing grounds within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

On Saturday, however, Yasay was quick to issue a “rejoinder” to the interview.

“What I said is we have to wait for the ruling and study and dissect its implications,” he said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

“As the ruling will not address sovereignty and delimitation, it is possible that some time in the future, claimant countries might consider entering into arrangements such as joint exploration and utilization of resources in disputed areas that do not prejudice the parties’ claims and delimitation of boundaries in accordance with UNCLOS,” it added, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

While Duterte has adopted a more conciliatory approach toward China, the previous administration of President Benigno Aquino III filed in 2013 a legal challenge with a U.N.-backed tribunal in The Hague contesting China’s claims to nearly all of the strategically important waterway.

Beijing has not taken part in the case and has vowed to ignore any ruling.

The Philippines, together with the United States, Japan and Vietnam, have been among the most outspoken nations against China’s claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing has built giant artificial islands in the disputed areas to protect what it says are its historic rights there.

In Friday’s interview, Yasay also said that Manila is open to sharing the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground within the Philippines’ EEZ that China took control of in 2012, which he said has “in the long course of history … been the traditional fishing grounds not only for Filipinos but also for Vietnamese, Chinese.”

Yasay, however, said in the interview that the vexing issue of sovereignty will not be solved for many years, calling it a “generational issue,” and that rival claimants must in the meantime work together.

Analysts criticized the apparent misstep by Yasay saying that it could “undermine” the Philippines’ South China Sea position.

“The ‘clarification’ subsequently issued by (Department of Foreign Affairs) was an immediate attempt at damage control, which I think shows just how potentially damaging Yasay’s comments were,” said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

“It obviously shows the new foreign minister’s inexperience, since taken at face value his comments on the EEZ and Scarborough Shoal … appeared to undermine Manila’s position by recognizing third countries’ historic fishing rights and therefore conceding Philippines’ exclusive sovereign rights — even within its own EEZ,” he added.

Under UNCLOS, a country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles from its coastline. A nation has sovereign rights to exploit natural resources within that zone.

“The damage may be limited if this was a one-off ‘misspoke,’ but it will still have the effect of undercutting any future negotiation position of the Philippines vis-a-vis China, while also undercutting confidence in the new government … to defend its own sovereign rights under international law,” Graham said.

Jeffrey Ordaniel, a maritime security researcher at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, said that regardless of Yasay’s miscues, Manila’s South China Sea policy has always been and will continue to be dependent on what China does.

“If China resorts to more provocative actions, the Duterte government will certainly resist,” Ordaniel said. “Otherwise, Manila is prepared to accept the new facts on the disputed waters, such as the presence of Beijing’s artificial islands, as the new status quo.”