Russian Ambassador to PHL: 'We are ready to become a new reliable friend and partner of the Philippines'

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 29): Russian Ambassador to PHL: 'We are ready to become a new reliable friend and partner of the Philippines'

After President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he is interested to visit Russia and be a major trade partner, Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev on Tuesday said his country is “ready to become a new reliable friend and partner of the Philippines.”

“ We are not talking about alliance, we are talking about friendship and partnership. I would like to draw your attention to this very important point,” Khovaev told reporters at the weekly Pandesal Forum in Quezon City,

He clarified that Russia is not seeking for military alliances in the Asia Pacific region, stressing that they have no military alliances.

“Our close relations with China, with Vietnam, with India, they are based on the model of strategic partnership," he explained.

The ambassador said there is a difference between partnership and military alliance, explaining military alliance provides strong mutual commitments.

“So, we prefer partnership and friendship because in our view, the security must be equal to all members of the international community. If some country creates a close military alliance, it means that they want to ensure their security, at least to some extent, at the expense of the security of other nations, other members of the international community. That’s not our stand, style, not a way for us. So, we speak in favor of a new architecture of equal security for all regional nations.

With regards to the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte to Russia, he said, President Putin has invited President Duterte to pay such a visit.

“It will be a historic event, and we believe that such an important visit must be well-prepared. It means that we, I mean both sides, should prepare the package of documents, bilateral preparations in different fields to be signed during this visit, so with that, there’s a lot of things to do,” he stressed.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=944282