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Duterte seeking ties with US ‘rivals’
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PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday he will visit Russia and China this year to chart an independent foreign policy and “open alliances” with two powers that have historic rivalries with the United States.
Duterte said the Philippines was at the “point of no return” in its relations with former colonial ruler the US, so he wanted to strengthen ties with others, and picked two global powers Washington has been sparring with on the international political stage.
Last week he declared he would soon — and often — visit China, with which ties remain frosty over a so-called arbitration ruling on South China Sea in July. He said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was expecting him in Moscow.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than US$5 trillion of trade moves every year.
“I am ready to not really break (US) ties but we will open alliances with China and ... Medvedev, he is awaiting there for my visit,” Duterte told reporters, adding that he would open up the “other side of the ideological barrier.”
He welcomed investment and shrugged off rating agency Standard and Poor’s concerns last week about the Philippine economy on his watch and his unpredictability.
“Never mind about the ratings,” he said. “I will open up the Philippines for them to do business, alliances of trade and commerce.”
The peso fell to its lowest since 2009 yesterday and foreign investors have dumped local shares for six straight weeks, worried about Duterte’s anti-US rhetoric and brutal war on drugs, which has alarmed rights groups at home and abroad.
Duterte also said he would open up telecoms and airlines, which are two domestic sectors long controlled by local players and criticized for being uncompetitive.
He did not elaborate.
The volatile leader’s vitriol against the US has become a near-daily occurrence and source of both amusement and concern.
Yesterday he accused Washington of “hypocrisy” and said Americans were still “lording it over us.” His latest swipe included ruling out participation in a maritime conflict should it be initiated by the US, despite a 1951 treaty between the two countries under which Duterte said Manila was legally obligated to back Washington.
“I am about to cross the Rubicon between me and the US,” he said,” without elaborating.
“It’s the point of no return.”
It is unclear whether Duterte’s outbursts will impact relations between the two counties.
Militaries of both sides are due to carry out joint exercises in the first half of next month.
Yesterday the US embassy in Manila announced a two-week deployment of a pair of C130 planes and 100 troops at an air base in the central Philippines, the third of its kind this year, as part of a rotational troops agreement.
Separately, Duterte said that the United Nations, European Union and US would get a free hand to investigate the killings in his ongoing anti-narcotics campaign, but only under Philippine laws.
Deaths that have occurred during the campaign have averaged over 40 a day since Duterte took office on June 30.
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