MANILA – Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin showered President Rodrigo Duterte with praise, as he also called the Philippines as the Russia’s “very important partner” in Asia.
Putin said that only under Duterte’s administration where the Philippines and Russia witnesses a “dramatic reinvigoration” of bilateral ties between the two countries, whose diplomatic relations was established in 1976.
“I would like to highlight that the Philippines is a very important partner of Russia in Asia. Our bilateral cooperation is constructive and mutually beneficial but our friendly relationships between our two countries,” Putin said
“I credit (Duterte) for expanding the multifaceted cooperation between Russia and the Philippines,” he added. “And in large part due to your personal attention, we have revitalized our political dialogue.”
Putin also praised Duterte for lowering the level of terrorism threat in the Philippines as he also expressed readiness of Russian companies “to increase the supplies of energy carriers, aircraft, transport, [and] special equipment.”
“Over the last two years you have managed to lower the level of terrorist threat in your country and to strengthen the potential of your security bodies,” Putin told Duterte.
“We are prepared to develop our partnership when it comes to countering terrorism and share our experience and all the developments,” he added.
Duterte, in return, told his “favorite hero” Putin that he had always looked forward to returning to Russia after his first visit was cut short due to the incident in Marawi City.
“I am here today to reaffirm our strong commitment and to build a robust and comprehensive partnership with the Russian Federation. In the past two years, we have seen a dramatic increase in bilateral activities across many areas of cooperation at various levels of government,” Duterte said.
“We have also made historic firsts in the key strategic areas from economic, defense, security and military technical cooperation,” he added./PN