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MANILA (TO UPDATE) – President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo separately congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday on his victory in the White House race.
The Philippines is committed to “further improving” the country’s long-standing relations with the United States under the Biden administration, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
“We look forward to working closely with President-elect Biden’s new administration based on mutual respect, mutual benefit, and a shared commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law,” he said.
“Congratulations and we wish you all the best.”
Robredo congratulated Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris, the first African American woman and vice president of the United States.
“Your victory is an affirmation of the shared ideals on which the long friendship between our two nations is based: democracy, civil rights, faith and inclusion. I pray for your success!” Robredo said in a tweet.
Biden called for unity in his first national address since winning a tense US election and ending the historically turbulent and divisive era of Donald Trump, which has yet to relent. Harris praised the record turnout of some 160 million people in the elections.
Washington is Manila’s longest and only treaty ally. The two countries trace their relations to the time when the former colonized the latter before the turn of the 20th century until 1946.
When Duterte came to power in 2016, he embraced an independent foreign policy that was less dependent on the United States and embraced China, the world’s second-largest economy, and even Russia.
–With reports from Agence France-Presse
