THE conversation took all of seven minutes, but President Rodrigo Duterte is said to have snagged an invitation to visit Washington from no less than the next president of the United States, Donald Trump.
To be sure, relations between the Philippines and the US have been testy since Mr. Duterte cursed President Barack Obama and said he would renew ties with China and Russia, Washington’s main rivals. Our President also said he did not like the sight of American soldiers in our territory as he referred to the atrocities they committed during the Philippine-American war—what gall they had, he believed, to lecture us about respect for human rights.
Trump, on the other hand, does not seem to be fond of assuming any high ground: Not on human rights, not on women, not on immigration. The billionaire businessman has never held any public office before he won last month’s elections when nearly everybody believed Hillary Clinton would win.
This early, it is apparent that Trump’s personality may bring forth a change in Mr. Duterte’s attitude towards the US. He has acknowledged they were alike—superficially or no. Both leaders speak their minds, have no compunctions about uttering expletives and expressing their, ugh, appreciation of the female form, and seem to believe they are the protagonists in this scheme of things, out on some mission to defeat the “enemies.”
True enough, the conversation was described by a Duterte aide as engaging and animated.
Mr. Duterte, however, must ensure that his talks with Mr. Trump go beyond pleasantries and locker-room talk. The Philippines may be just one of the many partners of the United States, still the biggest economy in the world, but the US is a crucial ally for the Philippines however much Mr. Duterte hates the uneven relationship.
Ultimately, managing foreign relations well springs from an acknowledgment that the community of nations does not consist of “good guys” and “bad guys.” Nor is it an us-versus-them world. Real interests in trade, in immigration, in defense are at stake. These should not be trivialized into catchy phrased uttered with braggadocio.
Dealings between countries should transcend the characters that lead them, no matter what colorful mavericks they might be.
