US President Donald Trump yesterday skipped the plenary session of a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila because of scheduling delays, but said his marathon trip to the region had been a success.
Trump left for home from the Philippines after a lunch with the other leaders, as meetings were running about two hours behind schedule.
He told reporters on Air Force One that he had delivered his prepared remarks during the lunch instead of the summit meeting.
Photo: EPA
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would attend the plenary session in his place, a senior White House official said.
Trump said his trip had resulted in at least US$300 billion, possibly triple that figure, of deals being agreed. He did not elaborate.
Trade and concern about possible protectionism under Trump’s “America First” agenda have come up during his visit to the region, which included stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam before concluding in the Philippines.
Earlier in the day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the plight of Rohingya refugees and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines at the summit, sensitive human rights issues skirted by almost all the others.
There was no pressure from Trump over the Philippines’ bloody war on drugs during a meeting on Monday with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on the sidelines of the summit.
A joint statement after the meeting said the two sides “underscored that human rights and the dignity of human life are essential and agreed to continue mainstreaming the human rights agenda in their national programs.”
However, Trudeau said that during his conversation with Duterte, he “mentioned human rights, rule of law and specifically extrajudicial killings as being an issue that Canada is concerned with.”
“The president was receptive to my comments and it was throughout a very cordial and positive exchange,” Trudeau told a news conference.
Trudeau said he also met Burmese State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi and raised the plight of Rohingya refugees, although he did not mention the Muslim minority by name.
“This is a tremendous concern to Canada and to many, many countries around the world,” he said.
Some countries in the 10-member ASEAN, particularly Muslim-majority Malaysia, have voiced strong concern over the issue.
However, in keeping with ASEAN’s principle of non-interference in each others’ internal affairs, it appeared to have been put aside at the summit.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS