Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants to break away from the U.S. and shift toward China and Russia, his strongest comments yet signaling a split with his nation’s biggest military ally.
“In this venue, I announce my separation from the U.S.,” Duterte said in Beijing on Thursday after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping. Duterte also said he might go to Russian President Vladimir Putin and tell him “there’s three of us against the world.”
The announcement came in front of a packed room of Filipino and Chinese business leaders. The tough-talking 71-year-old leader has repeatedly questioned his nation’s alliance with the U.S. while touting the economic benefits of friendlier ties with Beijing.
Earlier, China announced a resumption of bilateral talks on disputed territory in the South China Sea, an issue that had previously pushed the Philippines closer to America. China’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Liu Zhenmin told reporters that the two leaders had agreed to return to a “track of dialogue” over the South China Sea in what is a “new stage of maritime cooperation.”
“China has been a friend of the Philippines and the roots of our bonds are very deep and not easily severed,” Duterte said in a speech at the Great Hall of the People after meeting Xi for 30 minutes. “Even as we arrived in Beijing close to winter, this is a springtime of our relationship,” he said.
Duterte said he was mulling plans to require U.S. visitors to the Philippines to obtain a visa. Officials from both countries signed 13 pacts on areas including trade, investment, tourism, narcotics, and maritime cooperation at the summit meeting. Pacts on transport infrastructure, financing from Export-Import Bank were among those forged as China committed to support infrastructure development in the Philippines.
“At a certain point, if Duterte wants to reap the economic benefits from his visit to China he will need to pay the piper,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.
Before his meeting with Xi, Duterte told hundreds of Filipinos in Beijing that “it’s time to say goodbye” to the U.S.
“Foreign policy veers now towards” China, Duterte said on Wednesday night. “No more American interference. No more American exercises,” he told a cheering crowd. “I will not go to America anymore” for assistance, he said. “We will just be insulted there.”
The U.S. has been the Philippines’s closest ally since independence in 1946, and the nations are linked by formal defense treaties. Members of Duterte’s cabinet have repeatedly tried to tone down his more inflammatory remarks — such as telling President Barack Obama to “go to hell” — and stress that a more independent foreign policy doesn’t mean severing ties with the U.S.
Duterte himself told reporters Wednesday that this trip wouldn’t lead to a military alliance with China or joint energy exploration in disputed seas. The plight of Filipino fishermen seeking to resume activity in the Scarborough Shoal, which China effectively took control of in 2012, will be mentioned “in passing” to Xi, Duterte said.
The U.S. has expressed concern about Duterte’s policies. Philip Goldberg, the U.S. envoy in Manila, said Wednesday that the Philippines’s efforts to improve ties with China “shouldn’t be a zero-sum game.”
Duterte has lashed out at the U.S., the United Nations and the European Union for criticizing his drug war over alleged human-rights abuses. According to police data, more than 3,000 suspects have been killed after the policy took effect.
By contrast, the Philippine leader called China “very kind” for funding a drug rehabilitation center. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said Wednesday that Beijing “appreciates President Duterte’s efforts to crack down on drug crimes and improve social security with the fundamental interests and well-being of his country and people in mind.”
Featured Image: Associated Press
(c) 2016, Bloomberg ยท Andreo Calonzo
