The United States says it is "baffled" by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announcement of a "separation" from his country's longstanding ally, and will seek an explanation when a senior US official visits Manila this weekend.
Duterte's latest anti-US remarks, made amid a four-day visit to China that ended on Friday, are "inexplicably at odds with the very close relationship" between the two countries, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Daniel Russel, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will be seeking clarification when he makes a previously planned trip to Manila on the weekend, Kirby said.
"We are going to be seeking an explanation of exactly what the president meant when he talked about separation from the US."
At a business forum on Thursday in Beijing, Duterte announced his "separation from the United States, both militarily ... but in economics also" and said his country would be better off aligning itself with China and possibly Russia as well.
"I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world -- China, Philippines, and Russia. It's the only way."
His remarks came a day after he told the Filipino community in Beijing, regarding the United States, "Time to say goodbye, my friend. Your stay in my country was for your own benefit."
Kirby said the United States was not the only country baffled by Duterte's rhetoric.
"We have heard from many of our friends and partners in the region who are likewise confused about where this is going, and also, we believe, are trying to learn more on their own about what it portends," he said.
A Japanese Embassy official in Manila said Japan was keen to hear Duterte's explanation about his new foreign policy when he pays a three-day visit to Japan starting on Tuesday.
Duterte, who came to power in June, has been distancing the Philippines from the United States in the wake of US criticism of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and addicts amid his ongoing anti-drug campaign.
In his remarks on Thursday, Duterte also accused the United States of "idiotic arrogance" and suggested it was losing influence in Southeast Asia. Cambodia and Laos are already allies of China and now the Philippines is "veering towards China", he added.
China, he said, "does not go around insulting people, insisting on policies to follow them and trying to control the money of the world through the IMF and the World Bank".
Despite Duterte's pivot to Beijing, a Philippine poll released Tuesday shows that three-quarters of the Filipinos trust the United States and many of them distrust China.
According to the poll conducted by Social Weather Stations on Sept 24-27 among 1,200 adults nationwide, 76% of them had "much trust" in the United States, while only 22% felt the same way about China and 55% had "little trust" in China.
Independent observers questioned whether Duterte would be able to make his new policies stick.
“Symbolically none of this is good for the US, but in concrete terms the US has thick skin,” said Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “If the Duterte government starts to restrict US access to Philippine bases or something like that, then the US will have a problem.”
While Duterte’s cabinet members often seek to tone down his remarks -- a routine they followed again on Thursday -- the president has kept repeating them.
In his speech to the Chinese business leaders, Duterte also said he was considering plans to require US visitors to the Philippines to obtain a visa.
In a statement issued after Duterte’s speech, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said the cabinet would move strongly and swiftly towards regional economic integration.
“We will maintain relations with the West, but we desire stronger integration with our neighbours,” the statement said.
Earlier on Thursday, China announced a resumption of bilateral talks on contested territory in the South China Sea, an issue that had previously pushed the Philippines closer to America. Liu Zhenmin, China’s vice-minister for foreign affairs, hailed a “new stage of maritime cooperation".
In his first trip to China since taking office in late June, Duterte refrained from dwelling on the territorial disputes that had damaged bilateral ties. The two sides signed $24 billion worth of business, aid and loan agreements.