Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he wants US troops out of his country within two years and is willing to scrap defence pacts with longtime ally Washington if necessary. The remarks, made during a high-profile visit to Japan, follow a series of anti-American tirades by the firebrand leader. "I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops," Duterte told an economic forum in Tokyo, in a clear reference to US forces, ahead of a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"I want them out and if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, I will," he added. The US has a small number of Special Forces on the southern island of Mindanao to aid counter-terrorism operations. But Duterte has already said he wants US troops out of Mindanao because their presence stokes tensions on the island where Islamic militants have waged a decades-long separatist insurgency. Duterte has repeatedly attacked the US while cosying up to Beijing, upending his nation's foreign policy in comments that have sometimes been quickly retracted.
In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman said the United States still expects the Philippines to honour its commitments as a US ally. "We've seen a lot of this sort of troubling rhetoric recently, and this is not a positive trend," Julia Mason said. "This recent string of comments that do not reflect the warmth, breadth and depth of the US-Philippines partnership." The spokeswoman said US forces have been providing assistance in the southern Philippines for many years "at the request of several different Filipino administrations".
"We will continue to honour our alliance commitments, and of course, we expect the Philippines to do the same," she added. Asked to clarify the president's remarks, Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Duterte did not mean US troops would be ousted, stressing that "our national interests still continue to converge". The acid-tongued leader arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday on his first visit to Japan since taking office on June 30, looking to persuade executives his country is "open for business", after seeming to overturn Manila's traditional diplomatic alliances. The 71-year-old has slammed Washington for questioning his violent crime crackdown, which has claimed some 3,700 lives and attracted widespread international criticism.