FX.co ★ Philippine President Duterte asks Putin for state-of-the-art weapons

On Tuesday, May 23, the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin to expand partnership and ask for assistance in arms procurement.

According to Duterte, the Philippines needs modern weaponry to fight Daesh and expressed hope that Moscow would assist his country in obtaining arms.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on Tuesday onthe southern island of Mindanao, following the deadly firefight between government security forces and Islamists. The Philippine southern island of Mindanao is regularly subjected to attacks by terrorist groups, in particular, Maute, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and Abu Sayyaf militant groups, linked with Daesh.

Putin noted that Moscow and Manila have many bilateral projects, including power engineering, defense cooperation, and transport infrastructure. Rodrigo Duterte was supposed to stay in Moscow for five days, but he had to return to the Philippines urgently after Maute militants (part of ISIL) captured a part of the 200,000-strong city of Maravi on the island of Mindanao.

"Our country needs modern weapons to fight against ISIS. We had certain orders in the U.S., however, the situation is not very good now. I came to Moscow to ask for your help and support," the Kremlin quoted Duterte as telling Putin in a meeting on Tuesday. The Philippine leader plans to purchase еру equipment for reconnaissance, as well as guided missiles and helicopters. He is satisfied that Russia sells weapons without setting any conditions at all.