Show caption Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who says: ‘I don’t want anything to do with the US .’ Photograph: Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Rodrigo Duterte Duterte cuts short trip to Russia after declaring martial law in southern Philippines President was on visit to strengthen ties with Moscow, but will return home early following violence in city of Marawi

Shaun Walker in Moscow Mon 22 May 2017 21.00 EDT Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share via Email 3 years old

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, is to cut short a trip to Moscow having declared martial law in the south of his country.

Duterte was at the beginning of a five-day trip to Russia and was due to meet his “favourite hero”, President Vladimir Putin, on Thursday. The visit was part of an attempt to reorient his country’s geopolitical alliance further away from the US and towards Moscow.

But after he declared martial law on Tuesday evening following a shootout between government troops and militants in the southern city of Marawi, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte was needed at home.

The meeting with Putin has reportedly been brought forward to Tuesday evening, to allow for his urgent return to Manila.

Duterte has lambasted the US since he came to power last year, calling Barack Obama a “son of a bitch”, and has said Russia and China are the only two major world powers he trusts.



“I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way,” he said on a visit to China last year.

During the Moscow visit, Duterte had planned to give a lecture at a top university and have bilateral meetings with the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, and Putin.

Russia has refrained from criticising Duterte’s war on drugs, which rights groups say has led to thousands of extrajudicial killings.

Duterte and Putin first met on the sidelines of an international summit last November, when the Russian president extended an invitation to Duterte to visit Moscow. Since then, military cooperation has increased, with two Russian navy flotillas stopping in Manila. Meanwhile, Duterte has scaled down joint military exercises with the US.



Duterte said one of the main goals of his trip to Russia was to secure precision weaponry to use against Islamist militants at home. After reports late last year that the US state department was halting the sale of thousands of rifles to Philippine police, Duterte said he would turn to Russia. “I remember what the Russian diplomat said: ‘Come to Russia, we all have here anything you need,’” he said at the time.

He even hinted he might be amenable to some kind of formal military alliance with Russia. “When it comes to the military sphere, the current situation in the world is reaching a critical state, and I can’t rule out military alliances,” Duterte told Russian news agencies before his visit. He added that China and Russia were the only two countries he believed to be reliable.



During the inteview, Duterte also explained why he had turned away from the US and towards Moscow, in terms that will be music to the ears of many in Russia.

“America, since the end of the 1960s, has been interfering in other states. They offer a country help but demand in exchange that the country adopts certain laws, for example legalises gay marriages,” he said.

“I don’t want anything to do with the US and I want them to stop telling me what to do. I’ve never been to their country, and when they invited me to Trump’s inauguration I declined, because I was planning to visit Russia.”

However, the White House has signalled that there will be less focus on human rights when it comes to foreign policy, and it is possible that Duterte could be embarking on a visit to Washington before long as well.

Vladimir Putin has sought to portray Russia as an alternative centre of power. Photograph: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty

Trump and Duterte had a telephone conversation last month, described by the White House as very friendly, and the US president extended an invitation to visit, to the horror of many human rights organisations.

Trump has also praised Duterte’s war on drugs. It is believed about 7,000 people have been killed by state-sanctioned vigilante squads in the ruthless and bloody crackdown.

Putin has sought to portray Russia as an alternative centre of power for those who are unhappy with US dominance, especially as relations with western countries deteriorated after the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Putin will make a rare trip to Europe next week when he visits France to meet the new president, Emmanuel Macron. Moscow backed Marine Le Pen during the election campaign but will attempt to build bridges with Macron.