The Russian Navy said January 3 it was planning to hold war games with the Philippines, as two of its ships made a rare stop in Manila following Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot from the United States. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE
Moscow is ready to become a reliable partner and close friend of the Philippines, Russia’s ambassador has said.
Two Russian warships are on four-day visit to Manila this week, the first official navy-to-navy contact between the two countries.
The Anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Tributs, along with the sea tanker Boris Butoma, anchored at Manila’s South Harbor on Tuesday for a week long goodwill visit.
Russian Ambassador Igor Anatolyevich Khovaev took the opportunity to hold a news conference on board the anti-submarine vessel Admiral Tributs.
“As far as I understand that for the Philippines there is an objective need to diversify the range of the circle of your foreign partners. We are talking about diversification. It’s not a choice between these partners and those ones. Diversification means preserving and keeping old traditional partners and getting new ones. So Russia is ready to become a new reliable partner and close friend of the Philippines,” he said.
Khovaev said Russia had a range of weapons to offer.
“We are ready to supply small arms and light weapons, some aeroplanes, helicopters, submarines and many, many other weapons. Sophisticated weapons. Not the second-hand ones,” Khovaev said.
The Russian Navy’s visit comes a month after the Philippines Defense Secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, visited Russia to explore prospects for military-technical cooperation.
During the Philippines delegation visit to Russia in November to Russia, both countries expressed a willingness to finalize a Philippines-Russia Agreement on Defense Cooperation.
Russian Ambassador Igor Anatolyevich Khovaev vowed military cooperation with Moscow will not come with strings attached.
He said it was too early to talk about the scope of military cooperation but, in a clear reference to the United States, said old allies should not worry.
“We never use military cooperation as a kind of political leverage on our partners. The military cooperation with Russia has no political conditionality. That’s the best possible assurance. And in the history of military ties of Russia with all our partners around the world, there has never been, never I’m saying again never been, any kind of interference, any kind of link between military cooperation and political pressure. That’s not possible at all.”
Moscow is also eager to hold maritime drills with the Philippines to help combat terrorism and piracy.
We will show you what we can do, and we will see what you can do, and show us,” Russian Navy Pacific Fleet Deputy Commander, Rear Admiral Eduard Mikhailov, told reporters through an interpreter at a press conference on Tuesday. “In the future maybe we can have military exercises so we can help you and share with you our knowledge to deal or solve the problem with piracy and terrorism.”
The Philippines has been struggling to prevent Abu Sayyaf militants from abducting crew of slow-moving tugboat and foreigners sailing on yachts in the southern maritime borders with Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Abu Sayyaf is holding a German tourist and more than 10 Malaysian and Indonesian crewmen. A Dutch and a Japanese are also being held captive.
Mikhailov also raised the prospect of joint exercises with China and Malaysia in the South China Sea, where competing territorial claims have been a major source of tension and potential conflict for decades.
“We really hope that in a few years, the military exercises for example in your region, in the South China Sea, will (involve) for example, not only Russia-Philippines, but Russia, Philippines, China and maybe Malaysia together.”
Reacting to the news of the Russian navy’s arrival in Manila, the US State Department said the “defense relationship between the United States and the Philippines remains very, very strong.”
“Every nation-state has the right to pursue bilateral relations of its own choosing…what I can promise you is that it won’t affect how we view the importance of our bilateral relationship with the Philippines, ” U.S. State Department spokesperson, John Kirby said.
( Agencies )