President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte announced a desire to visit the Russian Federation and China before the end of this year to strengthen political relations and alliances. For this purpose he will visit the country during the next year. In addition, he mentioned the possibility of representing the land long-term lease for a period of up to 120 years. "I'm not quite ready to break relations with the US, but I want to make a new alliance with China and Russia." According to Duterte, he will soon travel to China to negotiate with the leader of the country Xi Jinping, and then wants to visit Japan and Russia.
At the moment, there is some cooling of relations between the Philippines and China because of the controversial areas in the South China Sea, but Duterte plans to make a series of visits to China.
At the same time, relations with the "former colonial ruler" - the United States, according to Duterte, are at the point of no return.
Philippine leader emphasized that this step it pushes the need to open new trading opportunities. During the election he promised to eliminate crime and drug trafficking in six months.
It is not clear whether the Duterte’s statement will affect the conduction of common exercises of the armed forces of the Philippines and the United States, scheduled for the first half of October.
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