Marcos to continue independent foreign policy

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 10)— The incoming Marcos administration will follow the footsteps of its predecessor in its approach to China, the president-elect said on Friday, adopting an independent foreign policy that has kept relations with other nations at arm's length.

Officials described President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign policy as one characterized by balance – a stance free from “outside pressure and interference.”

“[W]e will continue what President Duterte has started, what has been described as an independent foreign policy,” President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said during the Award for Promoting Philippines-China Understanding event.

“This is what we feel is best in the national interest, and I think it is to be advantageous not only, to our friends in China, but to all our friends around the world,” he added.

Duterte forged closer ties with China, and did not mince words criticizing some countries, including longtime ally the United States.

For his part, Marcos called China the country's “good friend” and “strongest partner.”

He added that strengthening ties with the Asian power would be a factor in the country's economic recovery.

“I see the future of China and the Philippines developing in many ways that maybe we do not see now,” Marcos said. “[A] term that I learned from the Chinese is people-to-people, and I think that it is another place, another direction, that we can explore to strengthen our foundations, our partnership, our friendship.”