By Brian Campued
Despite the Philippines-Russia diplomatic relations already entering its 50th year this 2026, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. recognized that there are still lots of potential areas for the two countries to develop and explore, as Manila seeks to deepen ties with non-traditional partners.
In an interview with Russia’s state-controlled international news television network RT (formerly Russia Today) on June 19, President Marcos Jr. said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Russia Commemorative Summit provided an opportunity for him to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss several areas of cooperation.
“The potentials are really quite remarkable. And there are huge areas that did not exist before that now exist, and there are the traditional areas in which we see that there’s a great deal of potential for growth… and that’s something that we were very, very happy to explore. I’m sure that there will be some good results down the road,” he said.
“So there’s so much room to grow and that’s why the optimism is there, and we have begun to recognize what are the areas that we can do partnerships with Russia—what are the commonalities in terms of the direction and what we would like to develop economically, politically, and culturally, and again, people-to-people exchanges,” he added.
More direct flights to boost tourism
With the possibility of opening more direct flights between Manila and Cebu and Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, and Vladivostok in Russia, Marcos said this may boost bilateral tourist flows and allow Filipinos to explore Russian soil.
“The more flights you have, the more people travel. And of course we have to accompany that with arrangements between our two countries so that we are able to make it easier for people to travel back and forth,” he said.
“Russia is well known for its cultural diversity… and there is so much to see and there’s so much to learn and the minute that people see that it’s easier now to travel, I’m very confident that people will take up that opportunity.”
He also cited previously opened chartered flights from Irkutsk and Khabarovsk in Siberia to Kalibo, Aklan as a “very smart move” in directly connecting tourists so that they would not have to go through Manila just to go to the Visayas.
“What has happened in the recent past is that people have to go through Manila and then take another flight to go to wherever it is they would like to go to explore the country. Now we go direct,” Marcos said.
“And that’s been the effect of our policy of developing regional airports because Manila is getting very, very crowded and there is absolutely no need for people to go through Manila if they don’t have to.”
Support amid MidEast crisis
Amid the crisis in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which disrupted global oil supplies and affected the prices of agricultural goods, Russia has become a potential key partner to the Philippines in terms of importing fuel and fertilizers.
President Marcos Jr. underscored the importance of securing stocks and looking for alternative sources to avoid shortages should another global or regional crisis occur.
He said that the Philippine government is looking to explore a direct arrangement with Russia to provide fertilizer stocks to ensure sufficient supply for Filipino farmers.
“I think that Russia is going to play a very important part for our farmers, for our agricultural system, not only in terms of fertilizer but also in terms of the transfer of technology, also in terms of smart agriculture,” he said.
“But beyond just fertilizers, agriculture has become one of the central areas that we have discussed in terms of trade… We are also proposing that we export more to Russia in terms of tropical fruits, in terms of some of our products.”
In terms of fuel, Marcos Jr. said the Philippines is open to continuing to get its supply from Russia as part of the government’s efforts to seek non-traditional suppliers.
“It’s something that we had already been undertaking. And looking for non-traditional suppliers of any kind of trade goods, any kind of commodity, this is something that we feel has always been necessary for us,” he said.
To strengthen energy security, the President expressed interest in partnering with Russia in exploring nuclear energy solutions, adding that Moscow is among the advanced countries in small modular reactor (SMR) development.
He noted that in an archipelagic country such as the Philippines, SMRs with capacities ranging from 70 to 300 megawatts could provide sufficient power supply for a single island and remote areas.
“I think Russia is the most advanced, especially when we talk about small modular reactors, which is particularly interesting for the Philippines because we have 7,600 plus islands and it is impossible for us to build submarine cables to every place that needs power,” Marcos said.
Marcos Jr. said that he had discussed with Putin about the Philippines’ ongoing efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and shift towards clean energy sources, including nuclear energy.
“Nuclear power has now moved away from a dangerous source to something that is in fact regarded as a renewable source of energy. So, the future is bright in terms of us having the kind of power generation that we clearly are going to need in the next [few] years,” the President said.
“If we could transfer that kind of program to the Philippines, it would be to great advantage, especially with the advent of data centers, of AI, with the exponential demand that it requires for power. We have to examine all the possibilities and all the potentials… Nuclear power is one of the best possibilities.”
-jpv
