Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he would soon visit China and hoped to also travel to Russian Federation, as he again criticised longtime ally the United States for “arrogance”.
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Pinol’s comments suggest Duterte is following through on his promises to build a commercial alliance with China, made repeatedly in speeches in which he has angrily alluded to cutting ties with the United States and reaching out to its geopolitical rivals. “I do not want it anymore, ‘” the President said.
Officially, Beijing has yet to confirm Duterte’s visit, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular press briefing on Tuesday that both sides were in close contact and it hoped Duterte would visit at an early date.
The Philippines on Wednesday announced plans to open in November what it called a “mega” drug rehabilitation facility, funded by a Chinese tycoon, to treat up to 10,000 patients in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
Duterte also said that, after Japan, “probably I will go to Russia”.
Duterte’s three-day visit to Beijing comes on the heels of his recent announcement that he would seek broader trade and commerce alliance with China.
Since taking office in June, Duterte has had an uneasy relationship with the USA and President Barack Obama, as well as other world groupings, including the United Nations and more recently, the EU. A meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled for October 20 in Beijing and he will return to Manila the following day, it said.
Duterte on Tuesday again gave a lengthy critique of the USA, branding them as “arrogant” and powerless to stop Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
He has ordered Philippine defense officials to stop joint patrols and military exercises with Washington, Manila’s oldest ally.
“What’s the point? They are the only ones benefiting”.
Yasay, Jr. also previously told a Senate panel that the U.S. remains to be the Philippines only military ally.
The joint drills that ended on Tuesday in an austere ceremony were held in an air of uncertainty because of President Duterte’s warning that they would be the last under his rule.
Just one or two percent of declared drug addicts, or “surrenderers”, as they are known in the Philippines, will receive in-patient treatment at the sprawling center, however. As my colleague Prashanth Parameswaran has outlined in greater detail, Duterte has long signaled his government’s intent to walk a very different line on the country’s maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Duterte has been criticised for his tough policies since he came into office in July.
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He said that while the Hague tribunal upheld the Philippines in the case it brought against China, “these are entitlements of that part of the Red China Sea that is ours”.
