Philippines will maintain its military alliances, Duterte says

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday his country would maintain its existing defence treaties and its military alliances, adding to uncertainty and confusion over the status of security ties with the United States.

It an apparent break from a weeks-long torrent of anti-American rhetoric, Duterte suggested defence alliances would continue and his foreign policy was to “realign”, but reiterated joint exercises with US troops, a decades-old tradition, would be stopped.

“We need not really break or abrogate our existing treaties because they say that it could provide us with the umbrella,” Duterte said in a speech to the coastguard personnel in Manila.

“We will maintain all military alliances because they say we need it for our defence.”

It was not immediately clear who Duterte was attributing the comments to when he mentioned “they” in his justification for maintaining ties.