Duterte stresses friendship ahead of arrival in Beijing
Print Edition
THE Philippines expects to boost its traditional friendship with China and further bilateral trade and economic cooperation, President Rodrigo Duterte said ahead of a four-day state visit.
Duterte arrives in Beijing today at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.
He spoke highly of the Chinese government and people, saying China boasts hard-working people and good, sound policies, internal and external.
“I would say that China deserves the kind of respect that China now enjoys,” he added.
Duterte said that since his country is abundant in tourism, and mineral and agricultural resources, and China is a huge lucrative market, there is considerable potential for further cooperation.
On the South China Sea issue, he said he prefers negotiation to confrontation.
“There is no sense in going to war. There is no sense fighting over a body of water,” Duterte said. “It is better to talk than war. We want to talk about friendship, we want to talk about cooperation, and most of all, we want to talk about business. War would lead us to nowhere.”
Duterte also made clear his opposition to outsiders’ attempts to meddle in the South China Sea issue. “We are not interested in allowing another country to talk. I just want to talk to China,” he said.
He said he is willing to pursue joint development of the waters together with China.
Duterte also expressed his desire to let Manila join the Beijing-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, as his nation is short of funding for infrastructure.
He said rapid development was hard to accomplish for any country without railways, and hoped China could offer soft loans. “There are so many things in my country which I would like to implement, but for lack of the capital stock,” he said. “If we can have the things you have given to other countries by the way of assistance, we’d also like to be a part of it and to be a part of the greater plans of China about the whole of Asia, particularly Southeast Asia.”
During his visit, Duterte said he will take the opportunity to conduct dialogue with China so as to enhance mutual understanding and partnership.
“All that I would need to do is just to talk and get a firm handshake from the officials and say that we are Filipinos and we are ready to cooperate with you, to help us in building our economy and building our country.”
There are some 2 million ethnic Chinese living and working in the Philippines, he said. “So we might be asking for your help, asking the Chinese people to help Chinese people here. They are Filipinos but they are also Chinese,” Duterte said.
“My grandfather is Chinese ... It’s only China that can help us,” he said.
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