PHL-Russo pacts herald closer ties, but significance seen largely political

THE PHILIPPINES and Russia yesterday forged 10 governmentto-government deals to cap President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s visit to Moscow that had been cut short by clashes between government troops and militants in Marawi City.

But while the development signals a concrete step towards closer bilateral ties as part of Mr. Duterte’s foreign policy rebalancing away from Washington, their value was more symbolic than significant, one analyst noted.

A list provided by Malacañang showed Mr. Duterte’s four- day visit to Russia starting May 22 yielding agreements on defense cooperation, intelligence exchange, transportation cooperation, and between the Department of Science and Technology and Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corp. on the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes; memoranda of understanding on agricultural cooperation and on cooperation in industry development; a memorandum of intent between Department of Trade and Industry and Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development; a Tourism Joint Action Program 2017-2019 to attract more of the three million Russian tourists to Southeast Asia every year; a protocol on cooperation between the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Russia’s Ministry of Culture for the Russian Federation; and a Plan of Consultations 2017- 2019 between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano said in a press statement that “[t]he signing of these 10 agreements manifests the interest and desire of both the Philippines and Russia to pursue a wide range of ares of cooperation.” Other Philippine officials who joined Mr. Cayetano in the signing ceremony in Moscow were Tourism Secretary Wanda T. Teo, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol as well as Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato T. dela Peña.

“The defense cooperation is quite limited. It’s just exchange

in expertise, exchange in personnel, training, nothing as deep as we have with other countries,” Philippine Ambassador to Russia Carlos D. Sorreta said in a press briefing early this week.

“We’re just starting out, feeling each other out.”

Sought for comment, University of Asia & the Pacific economist George N. Manzano, a former tariff commissioner, said the 10 deals signed by Manila and Moscow yesterday are meant to “diversify” the former’s interest.

“Economic- wise, it’s just diversification,” Mr. Manzano said. “It doesn’t mean we will trade less with our traditional partners except that these things open up new possibilities in terms of non- traditional trading partners.”

While it is “always good to diversify,” Mr. Manzano said: “I’m not quite sure about the magnitude of the impact because Russia is not our major trading partner.”

“We don’t trade much with Russia,” he said.

“I think it ( significance) is [more] political — not economic — because of the administration’s stance not to be dependent on our traditional allies like the EU (European Union) and the United States.”