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| Prime Minister Shinzo Abe |
by Xinhua Writer Tian Dongdong
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- In a bid to enhance his chummy ties with Rodrigo Duterte, president of a country who currently holds the rotating chair of ASEAN and a drifting-away U.S. ally, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday started a trip to the Philippines with an aid package of 8.66 billion U.S. dollars.
The visit, first of its kind made by Abe in the new year, is part of his six-day trip to the Asia Pacific rim countries, which will also carry him to Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
By making himself the first head of government to officially visit the Philippines this year and the highest ranking leader to ever visit Davao City, the hometown of President Duterte, Abe is leaving no stone unturned to draw the Philippines back to the U.S.-led alliance network, which has stirred up tensions in the South China Sea and the whole Asia Pacific at large.
However, Abe's calculated plan is doomed to be futile as more and more Asia Pacific countries, including the Philippines, have realized the importance and correctness of win-win cooperation as well as the toxicity of the zero-sum and Cold War mentality.
Last year's Hollywood-style farce of "the South China Sea arbitration" serves as a perfect reminder.
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