White House confirms Trump will attend Asean summit

Washington: President Donald Trump has backed away from a threat to skip the summit with South-East Asian leaders in the Philippines later this year, with the White House now saying he will attend.

In a statement yesterday, the White House said that Trump will visit Manila as part of a bumper Nov 3 to 14 tour that will also include stops in China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the US state of Hawaii.

The announcement sets up the likelihood that Trump will meet controversial firebrand Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte.

During a visit to Asean’s Jakarta headquarters in April, Vice- President Mike Pence had promised allies – anxious about waning US engagement in the region – that Trump would attend the bloc’s summit in Manila this November.

But Trump’s souring bromance with host Duterte, and a range of other issues had briefly thrown those plans in the air.

Trump said earlier this month that Duterte had extended an invitation, but that he had not yet decided whether to accept.

“He invited us so we’re going to see,” Trump said, while announcing he would go to Japan, South Korea, China and, maybe, Vietnam for a regional economic summit.

Philippine officials were surprised by the about face and the issue was raised during foreign minister Alan Peter Cayetano’s visit to Washington on Wednesday.

Early in his tenure, Trump courted controversy by praising Duterte for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”.

Duterte’s crackdown on alleged drug dealers has seen the police kill an estimated 3,850 people in 15 months and made him a virtual pariah.

Both men have shocked with similar barbed language.

But officials said the relationship soured in July, when Duterte vowed to never visit “lousy” America, despite Trump’s invitation.

Duterte had been angered by a US Congress human rights commis- sion hearing where various advocate groups assailed his bloody war on drugs.

Aides were left trying to convince Trump – who has also been skeptical of multilateral institutions and shown modest interest in the region – that it is important to attend.

Aside from the grown importance of South-East Asia, since 1951 the United States and the Philippines have had a mutual defence treaty, meaning Washington would defend Manila in any potential war.

Snubbing a “treaty ally,” officials argued, would not go unnoticed in Beijing or other capitals, where there is a desire to capitalise on any opportunity to limit US power in the region.

But US presidents have not always paid much attention to the bloc.

Barack Obama was the first president to regularly attend the Asean summit, donning flamboyant local shirts and posing arms-linked for photos with leaders as part of his much-vaunted “pivot to Asia”.

However Trump has taken a wrecking ball to much of Obama’s legacy.

Republican Senator Cory Gardner, who visited the Philippines earlier this year, was among those who urged Trump to attend.

“Now more than ever the United States needs to show its leadership not just in rhetoric, but in action, in visible ways,” he said. — AFP