{"id":233178,"date":"2019-10-01T22:17:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T02:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233178"},"modified":"2019-10-01T22:17:36","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T02:17:36","slug":"duterte-flies-to-russia-for-2nd-time-to-meet-idol-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/01\/duterte-flies-to-russia-for-2nd-time-to-meet-idol-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte flies to Russia for 2nd time to meet ‘idol’ Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gives a message after posthumously awarding the Order of Lapu-Lapu Rank of Kalasag to the killed soldiers during a ceremony at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on September 17, 2019. KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u00a0\u2014 The\u00a0Philippine\u00a0president left for Moscow on Tuesday to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and press efforts to broaden relations while maintaining robust ties with treaty ally the United States.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte left Manila with his defence, finance and economic secretaries and other key Cabinet officials for the Oct. 1-5 visit to Russia. His first trip in May 2017 was cut short due to a major attack by Islamic State group-linked militants in the southern\u00a0Philippines.<\/p>\n

After taking office in mid-2016, Duterte took steps to mend relations with China which were damaged by territorial conflicts and reach out to Putin, whom he has described as his \u201cidol,\u201d while often criticizing U.S. security policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is true that we value our long-standing partners, we must also be open to engage new ones,\u201d Duterte said in a departure speech. \u201cFor the longest time, we have placed key nations at the margins of our foreign policy, failing to fully explore the potentials of mutually beneficial co-operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte is to meet Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow and hold talks with Putin in Sochi city on expanding co-operation in security and defence and combatting terrorism, extremism and cross-border crimes.<\/p>\n

A labour agreement that would allow more Filipinos to work in Russia was not finalized ahead of Duterte’s trip, officials said.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Russian officials are expected to offer a range of defence equipment, including assault and transport helicopters, warships, drones and tanks which the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0could acquire as it modernizes its military, one of Asia’s most ill-equipped.<\/p>\n

In addition to Putin, the 74-year-old Duterte has publicly cozied up with Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

Duterte once said that if China and Russia were to establish a new world order, he would be the first to join them and abandon the U.N., which he described as U.S.-dominated and unsuccessful in preventing wars.<\/p>\n

Duterte, known for his brash rhetoric, said his foreign policy \u201cis based on respect for sovereignty and non-interference, the time-honoured principles of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently this most basic principle of a rule that governs the relations between nations has been forgotten by some idiots in some parts of the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte has denounced 18 countries which backed an Iceland-initiated resolution in July that asked the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights to look into human rights conditions in the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0amid his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs that has left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u00a0\u2014 The\u00a0Philippine\u00a0president left for Moscow on Tuesday to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and press efforts to broaden relations …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":231460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jim-gomez","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233180,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233178\/revisions\/233180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}