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In talks with Putin, Duterte hits west for bullying PH

During his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Peru, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has complained about the Western countries’ bullying.

“Of late, I see a lot of these Western nations bullying small nations. And not only that they are into so much hypocrisy,” GMA News quoted Duterte as telling Putin.

“And they want to… They seem to start a war but are afraid to go to war. That is what’s wrong with America and the others. They were waging war in so many places in Vietnam, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And for one single reason that there was a weapon of mass destruction and there was none,” he reportedly said

Duterte also complained about the Western nations’ forcing of “my country to contribute military forces.”

“They also got soldiers, Filipino soldiers in both Iraq and Vietnam and nothing happened, they lost. Then they went to an expedition in Iraq on an excuse of weapons of mass destruction and there was none,” he was quoted as saying.

He narrated to Putin about one soldier and a Filipino worker captured in the Middle East. “…they threatened to behead the Filipino unless we go out of war — in the war against the Middle East at that time,” Duterte reportedly said, adding that the Philippines was forced to withdraw from the war.

“From that time on, the Americans made it hard for us and even in the times with IMF. So there are the things that I see which is not a good idea,” he said.

Duterte also reportedly told Putin during the meeting that the Philippines has been “longing to be part of Europe especially in commerce and trade around the world.”

“And we’ve been longing to be part also of — despite the distance. We’ve been longing to be part of Europe especially in commerce and trade around the world. But there was one thing that really stood before us and that was the result of Cold War. And historically, I have been identified with the Western world,” he was quoted as saying by GMA News.

Duterte made the statement amid a recent tirade against the European Union due to criticisms on his war on drugs, the report said.

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