Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte announced his 'separation' from the United States on Thursday saying it was time to say 'goodbye'.
'America has lost now,' Duterte said in China's Great Hall of the People.
'Your stay in my country was for your own benefit. So time to say goodbye, my friend,' he said Wednesday of the US.
'No more American interference. No more American exercises. What for?'
Duterte also declared that he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks.
'I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to [President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world - China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way.'
It's believed Duterte was referring to US military presence in his country, but the Philippines president added: 'I will not go to America anymore. I will just be insulted there.'
Duterte made his comments in Beijing, where he is visiting with at least 200 business people to pave the way for what he calls a new commercial alliance as relations with longtime ally Washington deteriorate.
His efforts to engage China, months after a tribunal in the Hague ruled that Beijing did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous administration in Manila, marks a reversal in foreign policy since the 71-year-old former mayor took office on June 30.
Duterte's trade secretary, Ramon Lopez, said $13.5 billion in deals would be signed during the China trip.
His remarks will prompt fresh concern in the US, where the Obama administration has seen Manila as an important ally in its 'rebalance' of resources to Asia in the face of a rising China.
The administration agreed a deal with Duterte's predecessor granting US forces rotational access to bases in the Philippines and further doubts will be raised about the future of this arrangement.
In Washington, however, the White House stressed the traditional bonds between the US and the Philippines in response to Duterte's comments and stuck to a US approach of seeking to play down his repeated verbal attacks.
(Daily Mail)
