TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that the country will "separate" from the United States on Thursday, October 20, 2016, and declated that he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks, according to a report by Reuters.

Duterte made the controversial statement during his visit to Beijing in front of at least 200 business people. The meeting was held to pave the way for what the Filipino President calls a new commercial alliance as relations with the Philippines’ long-time ally Washington deteriorate.

"In this venue, your honours, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States," Duterte told Chinese and Philippine business people at a forum in the Great Hall of the People attended by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

Duterte's efforts to engage with China marks a sudden reversal of foreign policy just months after a tribunal in the Hague ruled that Beijing did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous administration in Manila before the former mayor took office on June 30.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, said that US$13.5 billion in deals would be signed during the China trip.

"I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to [President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world - China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way," Duterte told his Beijing audience.

Hours after Duterte's speech, the President’s top economic policymakers released a statement saying that, while Asian economic integration was "long overdue", that did not mean the Philippines was turning its back on the West.

"We will maintain relations with the West but we desire stronger integration with our neighbours," said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia in a joint statement.

REUTERS