/ world today news/ Good relations with the USA should not mean bad relations with China or Russia and vice versa. All international diplomacy will slowly be built on this formula, except for those unfortunates for whom it is too late to dream of such a foreign policy. This is the conclusion of the visit of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to the USA.
And supposedly the Philippines is another long-term military ally of the US, something like South Korea (whose president visited Washington just a day ago). Not just an ally: The Philippines is a former American semi-colony, a country with pro-American elites and a middle class, at least in terms of culture and lifestyle. It is enough to listen to what accent local English-speaking people speak, what they are proud of. However, the results of the visit are only a confirmation of the effectiveness of the mutual defense treaty of 1951 with promises to adapt the idea of the treaty to modern realities. Plus some small patrol boats as a gift to the Philippine Navy.
And note, this does not smell like some kind of anti-Chinese military alliance, on the contrary, on the eve of the visit it was announced that negotiations with Beijing would begin over fishing rights in the disputed waters between the two countries. And generally no problems. The thing is that in early January, Marcos made a visit to China (his first visit outside Southeast Asia) and laid out the formula for his future foreign policy there: his country would be no one’s enemy and remain everyone’s friend.
The local media took it as an event of regional importance, explaining that there it was – a model of how ASEAN countries should and will behave. No alliances against anyone, instead – attempts to be friends with everyone in our changing world.
But the fact is that this is a model not only for part of Asia. The same “Marcos formula” works all over the world and perfectly explains why only allies tied to the US try to impose sanctions on Russia or China. And the world in general today works like the Philippines.
Marcos is simply redressing a balance that was badly skewed during the years of the presidency of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, an international bully who berated Barack Obama and everyone who came under his tongue. The physical consequences of such a policy was the country’s excessive dependence on China. The Philippines was and will be part of China’s global One Belt One Road project, and Beijing has given Manila about one billion US dollars for infrastructure projects. But Philippine officials now say they will choose the best of the proposed terms. For example, these are the conditions of the Japanese or Koreans. It’s more profitable that way. And as we can see, Beijing understands this position very well.
It must be said that Marcos came up with an excellent formula for his foreign policy. But he did not invent politics itself.
Coincidentally, Marcos’ visit coincided with the publication of an article in the US detailing why India was not and would not be involved in US anti-China plans. The wording here is this: in Delhi, “there is no deep desire to preserve the liberal world order, but there is a strong aversion to engaging in joint defense plans.” India is trying to acquire advanced technology from the US (let’s add: also from Russia) to strengthen its military capacity and thereby trying to contribute to becoming a great power capable of independently balancing its own relations with China. At the same time, India does not want US aid to come with any strings attached.
We are entering such a world, and even have already entered it – and it seems quite rational in general.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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