(VOVworld) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told the United States on Friday to prepare for repeal of an important defense agreement. 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a visit in Tarlac city in northern Philippines December 11, 2016 (Source: Reuters)

At a press conference after his visit to Cambodia and Singapore, President Duterte said the US should prepare for the immediate abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which was signed in 1998, according legal status to thousands of U.S. troops who were rotated in the country for military exercises and humanitarian assistance operations. Mr. Duterte declared that his country can survive without the US’s money, after a US aid agency decided to stop financing anti-poverty programs in the Philippines. Relations between the two countries have dramatically worsened since President Duterte’s election.