Amid his 100 days-stint as U.S. president and blasted media, Donald Trump invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House during a phone call on Saturday.
The White House confirmed that President Trump has invited the ASEAN 2017 chairman and Philippines’ fiery leader Duterte and also addressed concerns over North Korea.
Donald Trump and Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte/ The Guardian
As of posting, White House did not gave details of when the leaders would meet in Washington to discuss their alliance, but said Trump looked forward to visiting the Philippines in November as part of two summits with other Asian nations.
The Philippines-US relations has been on the rock, following the latter comments of the current and intensive drug campaign of the fiery leader.
However, the Newsgru team has informed that the conversation of two leaders via call on Saturday was “very friendly” and the US-Philippines alliance was “now heading in a very positive direction,” after Duterte has blasted US for allegedly interfering in the internal affairs of Manila over its comments of government’s bloody drug crackdown.
Duterte’s drug war/CNN
According to the readout of the call, Trump and Duterte talked about “the concerns of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regarding regional security, including the threat posed by North Korea”.
The phone conversation also tackled on Duterte’s war on drugs, in which some 7,000 people have died at the hands of vigilantes and alleged “state sanctioned death squads.”
It can be remembered that Trump has previously praised the drug war.
“They also discussed the fact that the Philippine government is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs, a scourge that affects many countries throughout the world,” the readout said.
AFP
“President Trump enjoyed the conversation and said that he is looking forward to visiting the Philippines in November to participate in the east Asia summit and the US-Asean summit. President Trump also invited President Duterte to the White House to discuss the importance of the the United States-Philippines alliance,” it added.
Last week a Filipino lawyer filed raps at the international criminal court (ICC) accusing Duterte and 11 other Philippine top officials of mass murder and crimes against humanity.
According to the 77-page complaint of Atty. Jude Sabio, the president has “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously” committed extra-judicial executions or mass murders over three decades, amounting to crimes against humanity.
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