Duterte visits Russia
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has left for a fourday official visit to Russia, where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and witness the signing of several agreements, including on defense cooperation and trade.
In his departure speech yesterday, Duterte said the visit underscores his independent foreign policy and desire to forge closer ties. He said overdependence on traditional partners in the past has limited the Philippines' room to maneuver in a dynamic international arena.
Since taking office in June, Duterte has reached out to China and Russia in a dramatic shift in foreign policy for the Philippines, a US treaty ally.
Duterte said that Russia must "cease to be on the margins of Philippine diplomacy" and that he'll correct a strategic oversight that's led to many missed opportunities.
Meanwhile, Duterte is scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate degree from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations a month after he declined a similar degree from the University of the Philippines.
The MGIMO will confer an honorary doctorate on Duterte on Wednesday, the second day of his four-day official visit to Moscow, a schedule released by Malacañang showed.
It will be the first honorary degree to be given to Duterte as president.
After the conferment ceremony, Duterte will deliver a policy speech and hold a dialogue with students of the university. The president will also witness the donation of books to the MGIMO library.
In its website, the MGIMO said it has granted honorary doctorate degrees to prominent foreign politicians, public experts, diplomats and scholars working in the field of international relations and foreign policy.—