{"id":243063,"date":"2020-01-25T03:52:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T08:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243063"},"modified":"2020-01-25T03:52:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T08:52:23","slug":"duterte-eyes-improved-trade-deals-with-china-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/25\/duterte-eyes-improved-trade-deals-with-china-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte eyes improved trade deals with China, Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech after leading the awarding ceremony for the 2019 Model Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Family of the Year Award (MOFYA) at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on November 28, 2019. TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte has sought to further boost the Philippines\u2019 alliances with Russia and China, particularly on trade and commerce.<\/p>\n

Duterte issued the statement, in an exclusive interview with Russia Today aired on Friday. Russia Today is an international news channel funded by its government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the economics, I\u2019m veering towards so many\u2026 I\u2019d like to open new fronts with Russia (and) with China,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have increased in trade and commerce. It\u2019s robust. And maybe if I could start trading with Russia it would be good, it would be that fine,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The President renewed his intent to forge closer ties with Russia and China, as he praised the two countries for respecting the sovereignty of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

He made the remarks, as he expressed dismay over the supposed failure of the United States, a long-time ally of the Philippines, to respect the Philippines\u2019 sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201c(US) continues to look at us as vassal state because we\u2019re under Americans for 50 years and they lived off the fat of the land before we got our independence. We went to war against them. So if I cannot get a credible posture from the Americans, I can get it from the Russian and the Chinese government(s), it\u2019s because they respect the sovereignty of the country, which America is totally lacking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, America is not the Philippines and the Philippines is not America. It ain\u2019t that way anymore. And I refuse to dovetail under American foreign policy. They\u2019re always antagonizing the Chinese, and so with the Philippines,\u201d Duterte added.<\/p>\n

The Philippines\u2019 relationship with China and Russia has improved under Duterte\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Duterte bared he still has the interest to purchase helicopters from Russia.<\/p>\n

This came following reports in September 2019 that the Armed Forces of the Philippines was eyeing the procurement of 16 Mi-17 medium-lift Russian helicopters with a total worth of USD235 million from Russia, as part of its modernization program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had our priorities. I was buying for 12 cargo helicopters and you know, we are not a rich country. However, we programmed the funds of the government, how to budget it. There\u2019s always not enough to go around with,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m sure that we will have to make the downpayment and be prompt. You know, just because Russia is a friend, it doesn\u2019t follow that we abscond or we do not pay our debts. So it\u2019s still money and we are really short of it. Actually, we are not that rich,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte, in turn, assured that Russia can look for \u201cviable\u201d business in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte has sought to further boost the Philippines\u2019 alliances with Russia and China, particularly on trade and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":238665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063","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=243063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243064,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063\/revisions\/243064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}