Duterte, other leaders skip Trump-less Asean-US Summit

NONTHABURI, Thailand — President Rodrigo Duterte and several other heads of state of Association of Southeast Asian Nations members skipped the scheduled Asean-United States (US) Summit on Monday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said. 

Duterte was represented by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.

Photo from Asean Thailand Twitter page

Only Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who chairs this year’s Asean, were the heads of state who attended the Asean-US Summit.

US President Donald Trump skipped the 35th Asean Summit and Related Summits and was represented by national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

Dominguez thinks that Trump’s absence for the second straight year will not affect the Asean countries’ view of US’ reliability. 

“The absence of President Trump basically, he is missed. I don’t think it affects the view of the Asean about the reliability of the US. For reliability, we had better look into their actions rather than in to their presence,” Dominguez said. /gsg