Duterte walks back U.S. breakup talk

BEIJING — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s divorce from the United States may have ended before it began.

On Thursday, Duterte, while in Beijing on a state visit, announced a “separation” from the U.S. by the Philippines — a top U.S. ally since the 1950s — in favor of closer economic and military ties with China.

“America has lost now,” Duterte, 71, told a crowd of Chinese and Filipino business leaders in the Great Hall of the People, a stately meeting hall abutting Tiananmen Square. “And maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.”

Then came the damage control.

Duterte seemed to scramble early Saturday, saying he will not cut diplomatic ties between the Philippines and the U.S.

“It’s not a severance of ties. What I mean was a separation of foreign policy,” he told reporters in his home city, Davao, according to the Philippine news website GMA News.

“Let me clarify. The president did not talk about separation,” Philippines Trade Minister Ramon Lopez told CNN Philippines on Friday, joining a small chorus of high-ranking Philippine officials and elites to denounce, walk back, or express bafflement at their president’s words.

Four Philippine senators sought “clarification” on Duterte’s comments, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella called Duterte’s remarks merely “an assertion that we are an independent and sovereign nation, now finding common ground with friendly neighbors.”

Duterte, in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday afternoon, agreed to resume bilateral talks over the South China Sea, where competing territorial claims have poisoned the two countries’ relationship for years.