Duterte: Putin election to reinvigorate relations

President Rodrigo Duterte extended his “warmest congratulations” to Russian President Vladimir Putin for winning another six-year term, saying he looked forward to a “reinvigorated” relations between the Philippines and Russia.

Since assuming office in 2016, Mr. Duterte has cultivated relations with Russia and China, even though the Philippines is traditionally allied with the United States.

“President Duterte extends the warmest congratulations of the Filipino people to President Vladimir Putin on his reelection,” Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano said in a statement on Monday.

Mr. Duterte wished Putin “more success in leading Russia to greater progress and in advancing the cause of peace and security in our region and in the larger international community,” he said.

In power since 1999, Putin won 76 percent of the vote in elections held on March 18.

Cayetano, who arrived on Monday from Sydney where he represented Mr. Duterte in the two-day Asean-Australia summit, said two senior Filipino election officials were among the poll’s foreign observers. —Dona Z. Pazzibugan