The Philippines plans to forge new ties and trade deals with Russia, in the latest blow to US strategic supremacy in the archipelago at the heart of Asia’s disputed seas.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to visit Moscow early next year — at Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invitation — to hold talks on a range of agreements from weapons to communications, Perfecto Yasay Jr, the Philippine foreign minister, said. It is the next phase of a foreign policy tilt that has already seen Manila clash with Washington and draw closer to Beijing.

Manila wants to keep its 1951 security treaty and wider relations with the US, according to Mr Yasay. But Mr Duterte’s six-month-old government is also seeking closer ties with Russia under its “independent foreign policy” — and might find those even easier to build if Donald Trump’s incoming US administration eases hostilities with the Kremlin.