TOKYO -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking in a country that hosts 50,000 U.S. troops, said Wednesday that he wants his country to be free of foreign troops, possibly within two years.
"I want to be friends to China," he told an audience of businesspeople in Tokyo. "I do not need the arms, I do not want missiles established in my country, I do not need to have the airports to host the bombers."
He was referring to visiting U.S. troops, whose presence in five Philippine military camps was established under a security deal signed during the term of Duterte's predecessor as a counterbalance to China's growing military assertiveness in the region.
Duterte has cozied up to Beijing while criticizing U.S. foreign policy. He departed at the end of his prepared remarks on economic development and investment to address the topic that he said he knows is "what is in everybody's mind."
He said he is pursuing an independent foreign policy.
"I may have ruffled the feelings of some but that is how it is," he said. "We will survive, without the assistance of America, maybe a lesser quality of life, but as I said, we will survive."
The Philippine leader is on a three-day visit to Japan. He is meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later Wednesday before attending a banquet hosted by Abe.
