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Philippine Officials: Duterte Didn’t Really Mean ‘Separation’ From U.S.

“We are not stopping trade with America.”

When President Rodrigo Duterte called for Filipino economic “separation” from the United States, he didn’t really mean it, according to Philippines officials alarmed by the response to their new leader’s recent remarks. “I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines, and Russia,” Duterte told a venue full of Chinese leaders and businessmen Thursday. “I announce my separation from the United States. Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also,” he declared. Attempting to backtrack on his boss’s declaration, the country’s trade minister Ramon Lopez told CNN Philippines, “Let me clarify. The president did not talk about separation,” adding, “We are not stopping trade, investment with America. The president specifically mentioned his desire to strengthen further the ties with China and the ASEAN region, which we have been trading with for centuries.” Duterte’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said the firebrand leader’s remarks were simply a “restatement of his position on charting an independent foreign policy.”