Duterte wants to move to Moscow
The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte summed up the first 100 days in office after the insult of the President of the United States. The most recent of his outbursts were made during a series of speeches in Manila. Duterte declared: "I disagree with America" in response to the alleged refusal of Washington to sell arms to the Philippines.
Immediately after coming to power, Duterte has launched a wave of extrajudicial executions in pursuit of his self-proclaimed war with drug traffickers and drug addicts. Amid international condemnation over the killings, Duterte likened himself to Hitler, and said that he would gladly have killed more. Duterte insulted the U.S. Ambassador in Manila, calling him a "son of a bitch" and sent insults at President Barack Obama declaring that he can "go to hell."
The United States believes that Duterte wants to move to Moscow or Beijing. If this happens, the level of U.S. security in East Asia would be dangerously weakened. Philippines, falls within the field of view of Beijing or Moscow could undermine the ability of States to protect freedom of navigation in the South China sea.
At the moment, the US and Philippines conducted a joint patrol in the region, and also in April 2016, before Duterte took office, have signed an enhanced Alliance agreement that includes the basing of us aircraft at the airbase Clark, joint training and the release of us funding to support the improvement of military infrastructure. Duterte indicated that he would consider all these agreements.
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