Duterte reiterates he wants foreign troops to leave the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte once again said that he wants his country, the Philippines, to be free of foreign troops, possibly within two years.
This was announced by the President on Wednesday while he was speaking in a country that hosts 50,000 US troops, Japan.
Duterte is in Tokyo, Japan for his working visit from October 25-28. He is meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials of the Land of the Rising Sun.
On Wednesday, he spoke before the business people in Tokyo and he repeated what he has repeatedly said during his speeches.
“I want to be friends to China.l do not need the arms, I do not want missiles established in my country, I do not need to have the airports to host the bombers.”
The President referred to visiting troops of the United States, who are present in five Philippine military camps in the country. Their presence was established under a security deal signed during the term of former President Benigno S. Aquino III as a counterbalance to China’s growing military assertiveness in the region, especially in the West Philippine Sea.
Duterte has cozied up to Beijing while criticizing US foreign policy, like what he is doing in most of his speeches. He departed at the end of his prepared remarks on economic development and investment to address the topic that he said he knows is “what is in everybody’s mind.”
He said he is pursuing an independent foreign policy, as what he has announced before flying to Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon.
“I may have ruffled the feelings of some but that is how it is,” he said. “We will survive, without the assistance of America, maybe a lesser quality of life, but as I said, we will survive.”
Duterte is set to return to the Philippines on October 28, and expected to report what has been achieved during his visit through his arrival speech.