SECURITY and trade will be on top of the agenda when President Rodrigo Duterte and United States President Donald Trump meet at the sidelines of the Philippines’ hosting of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in November, the Foreign Affairs Department said Wednesday.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano also said the firebrand US leader was skipping the East Asia Summit attended by all dialogue partners of the 10-member regional bloc.
“You’ve heard President Trump [say] American first. You’ve heard President Duterte [say] his life, his work is dedicated to the Filipino people,” Cayetano told reporters in a chance interview at the Manila South Harbor.
He made his statement even as another official said Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s meeting with senior US government officials was not the reason behind US President Donald Trump’s decision to skip the East Asia Summit.
Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., director general for operations of the Asean 2017 National Organizing Council, said the cancellation was due to a scheduling problem.
“The reason is he [Trump] would have been out of the US for too long,” Paynor told a news forum.
Cayetano said the US and the Philippines valued peace and security internally and within the region, which included terrorism and the threat of terrorism and illegal drugs.
The Philippines would likewise explore having a bilateral trade agreement with Washington amid Trump’s protectionist trade tone, Cayetano said.
“They’re negotiating many regional and multilateral trade agreements but there’s a possibility that we will explore a bilateral agreement.
“How to better trade between the two countries. How to get more Filipino goods into the US and how to also support the US economy by us contributing also.”
Then candidate Trump had argued for protectionism and asserted that decades of free-trade policies were responsible for the collapse of the American manufacturing industry.
Security concerns, meanwhile, is expected to focus on Trump’s call to American allies in the region to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
The Philippines would be one of Trump’s final stops as he embarked on his Asian trip from Nov. 3 to 14, the White House said.
The American leader is expected to arrive in Manila on Nov. 12 to attend the special gala celebration dinner for the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In a statement, the White House said Tuesday that Trump would be returning to the United States on Nov. 14, which is the same day as the East Asia Summit in the Philippines.
Trump is slated to attend the Asean Summit the day before but he will not stay an extra day.
Another US delegation will attend the EAS, which will include more than a dozen Asian nations as well as Australia, New Zealand and Russia.
Cayetano said Trump’s absence would be due to limited time, since the time frame of the EAS was finalized before the Philippines’ Asean organizing committee could confirm that the event would take place on the 14th.
“They were actually just waiting for the East Asia Summit. Now that it was finalized that the East Asia Summit is on the 14th, it looks like the Secretary of State will be the one to attend,” said Cayetano referring to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“My latest info is that, if the EAS will push through on the 14th, [Trump] cannot extend another day because his trip is already so long.”
The EAS is an annual summit attended by all 10 Asean countries and dialogue partners like the US, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea.