Duterte maximizes interests: analysts suggest

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought to assure Japan on Wednesday by saying that his visit to China last week was about economics only and that the South China Sea disputes should be resolved peacefully.

“You know I went to China for a visit. And I would like to assure you that all there was, was economics. We did not talk about arms. We avoided talking about alliances,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying while meeting with Japanese business leaders.

Analysts said that Duterte is trying to maximize his country’s national interests by making friends with both China and Japan.

I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out.” Rodrigo Duterte Philippine president

The Philippine president should respect the consensus he reached with China during his visit last week and avoid being influenced by Japan, the analysts said.

Describing Japan as a “special friend who is closer than a brother”, Duterte said Manila would work closely with Japan on regional issues of common concern and uphold the values of democracy, the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes, including those involving the South China Sea.

Duterte, speaking through a Japanese interpreter at the start of his talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, later said he would stand on Japan’s side regarding the South China Sea, according to Reuters.

Abe said he welcomed Duterte’s efforts to improve Manila’s ties with Beijing.

Duterte’s Japanese trip follows his visit to China last week, during which the two nations restored their relationship, which deteriorated under Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who unilaterally launched the arbitration case against China over the South China Sea dispute.

During the visit, Japan is expected to offer Manila two large coast guard patrol boats — on top of an earlier pledge of 10 smaller ones — and TC-90 military training aircraft, the Associated Press reported.

Jia Duqiang, a senior researcher of Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Duterte is maintaining a “balanced diplomacy” to cater to both China and Japan, given the remarks he has made in the two countries in the past week.