Duterte announces ‘separation’ from U.S.
American officials ‘baffled’ by rhetoric
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he wants to cut the cord with the U.S. and pivot to China and Russia, words that signal a deepening split with his country’s biggest military ally and which have prompted bafflement in Washington.
American officials said they would seek an explanation of Duterte’s pronouncement during a state visit to Beijing, several weeks after he told President Barack Obama to “go to hell.” Since taking office in June, the brash 71-year-old leader has repeatedly questioned his nation’s links with the U.S. while touting the economic benefits of closer ties with China.
“I announce my separation from the U.S.,” Duterte said to a packed room of business leaders in the Chinese capital after meeting with 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 comments marked Duterte’s strongest yet in disparaging an alliance that has underpinned the U.S.’s Asia-Pacific strategy since the Second World War. Yet it remains to be seen whether he will follow through on the heated rhetoric with actions — such as jointly exploring for energy with Beijing in disputed waters or tearing up defence agreements that give the U.S. access to bases in the Philippines. The U.S. has strong ties with the Philippine defence establishment, and the nation’s citizens say they trust America more than China by a wide margin.
“Symbolically none of this good for the U.S., but in concrete terms the U.S. has thick skin,” said Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “If the Duterte government starts to restrict U.S. access to Philippine bases or something like that, then the U.S. will have a problem.”
On Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby described the U.S. as “baffled” by Duterte’s rhetoric. The U.S. will seek an explanation when Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, visits the Philippines this weekend on a previously scheduled trip, Kirby said.
Duterte’s comments are “inexplicably at odds with the very close relationship that we have with the Filipino people, as well as the government there, on many different levels, not just from a security perspective,” Kirby said.
While Duterte’s cabinet members often seek to tone down his remarks — a routine they followed again on Thursday — the president has kept repeating them. In his speech to the Chinese business leaders, Duterte said that the separation from the U.S. would be both military and economic, without elaborating.