President in Russia for landmark visit

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday flew to Russia to seek arms and enhance ties with Moscow.

In his prepared departure speech, Mr. Duterte said he sought to end his country’s “overdependence on traditional partners” and Russia’s being “at the margins of Philippine diplomacy.”

Mr. Duterte in his four-day official visit is scheduled to hold his second meeting with his “idol” Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two met last year at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.

“Russia must cease to be at the margins of Philippine diplomacy. Overdependence on traditional partners has limited our room to maneuver in a very dynamic international arena,” Mr. Duterte said.

“This is a strategic oversight that has led to many missed opportunities for our country. I am determined to correct this,” he added.

The Philippines, a former American colony, had been one of the United States’ key allies in the AsiaPacific for decades. The two nations are bound by a mutual defense pact.

But Mr. Duterte has sought to dramatically realign Manila’s diplomatic and defense alliances toward China and Russia, while repeatedly threatening to reduce or even junk ties with Washington after former US President Barack H. Obama, Jr. criticized Manila’s deadly drug war.

Both China and Russia have thrown support behind Mr. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, or at least refrained from condemning the deadly crackdown that has left thousands of people dead.

But upon taking office of US President Donald J. Trump last year, Mr. Duterte’s remarks had tempered toward the Republican leader, whom Mr. Duterte claimed had personally expressed understanding on his war against suspected narco-traffickers.

“I have nothing against America, we are perfectly (all right). Trump is my friend. But my foreign policy has shifted from that of pro-Western,” Mr. Duterte said in a recent interview with RT, Russia’s international English-language news channel.

“I now have this working alliance with China, and I hope to establish good working relations with Russia,” he also said. “Why? Because the Western world, EU (European Union) and everything, they have this double-talk.”

RUSSIAN WEAPONS

The top priority of Mr. Duterte’s landmark visit to Moscow is to secure precision-guided bombs to use on Islamic militants in Mindanao and to seal a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to beef up Philippine defense.

His trip to Moscow came after two US senators filed a bill restricting the sale of weapons to the Philippine police due to human rights concerns over Mr. Duterte’s drugs war.

“Russia sells weapons, no conditions. With the US it’s a different story. They make conditions. But I’m not gonna stand on bended knees,” Mr. Duterte also told RT.

Meanwhile, other deals expected in the four-day visit include treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition, and an MoU on security cooperation between the two countries’ national security councils, according to Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Maria Cleofe Natividad.

Defense Chief Delfin N. Lorenzana early this month said the Philippine government signed a letter of intent to buy defense equipment from China’s largest state-owned arms maker and exporting company, Poly Technologies.

Aside from Russia and China, Mr. Duterte is also looking to acquire defense assets from Israel, where he is expected to pay a visit soon.

The Philippines and Russia established diplomatic ties 41 years ago.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Russia has not had any foreign direct investment in the Philippines since 1999.

Meanwhile, Russia was 31st out of 223 trade partners in 2015, the Department of Trade and Industry said. It is also the Philippines’ 44th-largest export market (out of 211) and 27thlargest source of imports (out of 203).

The top Philippine export product to Russia is carrageenan, seaweed and other algae; while petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals are the top imports here from Russia.