Why did the Philippine President’s meeting with the US Secretary of Defense follow the script?

In order to prevent misunderstandings, Philippine President Duterte, who was previously known for his "anti-American" image, used a "scripted" approach during his meeting with US Defense Secretary Mattis on the 24th. and bilateral relations. On the same day, Duterte also thanked the United States and other countries in front of the defense ministers of more than a dozen countries who came to the Philippines to attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus for their help in the Philippine government's fight against extremist militants in Marawi. .

However, an embarrassing fact is that when the dusty Mattis arrived in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, five warships from Russia had already stayed safely in the city’s military port for two days, and in On the 25th, a batch of free military equipment was officially handed over to the Philippines.

Philippine media noticed that during Duterte’s itinerary on the 24th, his meeting with Mattis was also scheduled after Russian Defense Minister Shoigu.

"Duterte has made no secret of his intention to develop relations with strategic opponents of the United States," Reuters commented, "This effort has already yielded initial results."

Local On October 25, Duterte boarded the Russian Navy’s anti-submarine ship "Panteleyev" for a visit. Philippine news website Rappler reported that this is Duterte’s third visit to Russian warships this year. According to reports, Duterte was accompanied by not only Philippine Defense Minister Lorenzana and Foreign Minister Cayetano, but also Chief of General Staff Eduardo A?o and Duterte’s National Security Advisor. Esperon. The Russian personnel are led by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

On the "Panteleyev" warship, the two countries held a handover ceremony for Russian arms assistance to the Philippines. This batch of arms includes 20 multi-purpose trucks, 5,000 AK-47 rifles, 1 million rounds of ammunition and 5,000 steel helmets.

The day before, Russia and the Philippines also signed two military cooperation agreements. According to information released on the official website of the 2017 ASEAN Summit in the Philippines, one of the agreements is a military science and technology cooperation agreement, and the other is an arms procurement agreement. According to these two agreements, the Philippines will not only receive support from Russia in arms production, but also purchase Russian-made RPG-7V rocket launchers, and carry out military technology research and development and military industry expert exchanges with Russia. .

Russian Satellite Network reported that this is the first time that Russia and the Philippines have signed a cooperation agreement in the military industry. Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said that the leaders of Russia and the Philippines have pointed out the importance of bilateral relations, and strengthening defense cooperation is a "pragmatic action" aimed at implementing the consensus of the leaders of the two countries.

Just five months ago, Duterte suddenly learned during his visit to Russia that a group of militants related to the extremist organization "Islamic State" had captured the southern Philippine city of Marawi, and domestic counter-terrorism The situation is urgent. For this reason, Duterte had to interrupt his visit to Russia and asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help in a hasty meeting held in the early morning. A video showed that Duterte had a serious expression and sincere words, saying that the Philippines urgently needed weapons for counter-terrorism.

Philippine media reported that in the information released by the Russian government at the time, there was no mention of whether Putin responded positively to this. But when attending an event on October 11 this year, Duterte told the military personnel present that he had reached an agreement on military assistance with Russia. “You will soon be able to use 5,000 automatic rifles from Russia. ”

As the Philippines’ traditional defense partner, the United States was originally the Philippines’ main source of arms imports. However, controversy arose due to Duterte’s “anti-drug” campaign across the country after he came to power. The U.S. State Department stopped an agreement to sell 26,000 automatic rifles to the Philippines in November 2016. Reuters revealed that the reason behind this was that Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, the veteran of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised "concerns" about the "human rights situation" in the Philippines.

Dai Fan, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at Jinan University, told The Paper that the Philippines hopes to have more autonomy and flexibility when facing the United States.

“This is largely determined by Duterte’s personal governance line and style, but it is also objectively in line with the interests of the Philippines: at least in terms of security, over-reliance on the United States will lead to Security vulnerabilities and potential risks.

"

"But the problem is that as the Philippines' main security ally, the Philippines' current dependence on the United States has a long tradition and is multifaceted," Dai Fan believes. "If the Philippines really wants to strengthen its relationship with Russia, There are other issues to consider when working together to reduce this dependence. For example, does Russia have enough will and ability to meet the Philippines' security needs? To what extent can it be satisfied? At present, these are still unknown. ”

Since taking office, Duterte has repeatedly emphasized that he will seek to reduce the Philippines’ dependence on the United States. He scaled back the scale of joint military exercises held with the U.S. military in May this year, and conducted several

However, this did not prevent Duterte from remaining polite when facing U.S. officials. Reuters reported that during his meeting with Mattis on the 24th. , he spoke of bilateral relations "passionately" but insisted on sticking to the written script.

"I hope that my statement will be understood as 'politically correct' as possible," Duterte said. Te said, "So I'd better read it like this. "

When meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on August 7 this year, Duterte even changed his "anti-American" image and called himself a "humble friend of the United States in Southeast Asia." "At a press conference held on the same day, Duterte said that he and Tillerson did not discuss human rights issues, but focused on counter-terrorism issues.

October 2017 local time On the 24th, Philippine President Duterte met with the defense ministers of various countries who came to attend the 11th ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting. This is a visual picture of China between Philippine President Duterte and US Secretary of Defense Mattis. p>

Reuters reported on the 24th that U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said that the United States is the only ally of the Philippines that has concluded a treaty and has far deeper ties with the Philippines. Kim followed Mattis to the Philippines. The press team said, “I will not feel threatened just because Russia and other countries provide some military equipment to the Philippines. We have been supplying critical equipment to the Philippines for many, many years. While Russia and other countries only provided some guns, I don't think this is worthy of concern in the United States. ”

“If you are careful enough, you will find that the unhappiness between Duterte and the United States mainly occurred during the Obama era. Since Trump came to power, Duterte has seldom spoken harshly to the United States, especially to its top leaders. Zhuang Tutu, director of Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University, told The Paper that although Duterte has recently responded fiercely to some U.S. congressmen’s Philippine-related remarks, it has not substantially affected U.S.-Philippine relations.

“From the current point of view, the benefits that Russia can provide to the Philippines are still very limited, and are only limited to the security and defense fields,” Zhuang Tuo said. “In contrast, the United States and the Philippines have had a military alliance for more than 60 years. With the historical ties between the colony and the old metropolitan country, not only is there a high level of mutual trust and understanding between the two militaries, but there is also deep-rooted pro-American sentiment in Philippine civil society. Therefore, no matter how arrogant Duterte is, the United States can always remain calm about Philippines-U.S. relations. ”