A visit to China by a Philippine special envoy tasked with rebuilding tattered ties with Beijing has been canceled, his aides said yesterday, the latest turn in a foreign policy increasingly unpredictable under the Philippines’ new president.
Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, who was in office from 1992 to 1998, would still go to Beijing, but when the time was right, an aide said.
News of the aborted trip was first posted on the Web site of the Philippine embassy in Beijing, informing its citizens that a gathering with Ramos was now off.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte picked 88-year-old Ramos to start a complex process of dialogue with China in the wake of a landmark ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, which invalidated Beijing’s claim to most of the South China Sea and put much of the region on edge.
No official announcement had been made about the trip by either the Philippines or China, and it was not immediately clear with whom he had planned to meet.
Ramos’ aide, who was not authorized to speak to media, said Ramos still planned to go to Beijing “at the proper time.”
China refuses to recognize the arbitration ruling, but both sides have pledged to pursue warmer ties. Exactly how they plan to navigate the issue of the ruling, China’s artificial islands and its blocking of Filipino fishermen at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) remains unclear.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than US$5 trillion of trade moves annually. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have rival claims.
However, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told reporters the trip was canceled because it clashed with Duterte’s schedule.
“The president’s visit to a number of Asian countries is being arranged,” the source added.
In a speech yesterday, Duterte reiterated his hopes of making China a new friend, along with Russia, and said by next year he will have “entered into so many new alliances.”
His rhetorical outreach toward Russia and China was accompanied for a second day by a chiding of long-time treaty ally and former colonial power the US, saying he would not allow Washington to “impose on us anything.”
Under Duterte, a foreign policy for years aligned with the West looks set for a serious shake up following his near-daily, profanity-riddled rebukes of anyone from the UN, Britain and France to the EU and US.
They have each been branded hypocritical by Duterte after voicing concerns about his war on drugs, which has killed about 3,000 people in his first three months in office.
However, China was not spared criticism, with Duterte yesterday telling Beijing to control drug gangs supplying narcotics to the Philippines.
Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Lauro Baja said Duterte should send a clearer message on his foreign policy intentions, and not through the media.
“The view from the outside is that the Philippines’ worst enemy is itself, its foreign policy is confusing,” he said. “So, both Washington and Beijing would ask, what does the Philippines want?”
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