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Trump says has 'great relationship' with Duterte; brief mention of rights

 

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte alongside the ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he had a "great relationship" with his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, while a White House official said human rights got a brief mention when the two met on the sidelines of an Asian summit.

 

Their meeting was one of the most anticipated of the summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila, with human rights groups pressing Trump to take a tough line on Duterte over his bloody war on drugs, in which thousands of people have been killed.

 

"We are your ally. We are an important ally," Duterte told Trump at the beginning of their talks, according to reporters allowed in to the meeting room.

 

Trump replied: "We've had a great relationship. This has been very successful. And the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) conference has been handled beautifully by the president in the Philippines."

 

When a reporter asked Trump if he would raise human rights at the meeting, Duterte said: "Whoa, whoa. This is not a press statement. This is the bilateral meeting."

 

A Philippines government spokesman later said human rights were not raised.

 

However, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the topic was mentioned briefly.

 

"The conversation focused on ISIS (Islamic State), illegal drugs, and trade. Human rights briefly came up in the context of the Philippines' fight against illegal drugs."

 

Duterte, who has spoken highly of Trump, said last week he would tell the U.S. president to "lay off" if he were to raise accusations of rights violations.

 

Duterte has been called the "Trump of the East" for his brash style and provocative language.

 

Trump was criticised in May for praising Duterte during a phone call for the "great job" he was doing to counter illegal narcotics.

 

More than 3,900 people have been killed in a war on drugs that Duterte declared when he took office last year. His government says the police act in self defence, but critics say executions are taking place with no accountability.

 

The United States and the Philippines, a former U.S. colony, have been strategic allies since World War Two. But their relations have been strained by anti-U.S. outbursts from Duterte and his enthusiasm for better ties with Russia and China.

 

However, Duterte clearly appears to be getting on better with Trump than with his predecessor Barack Obama.

 

The two leaders seem to have warmed to each other after meeting for the first time on Saturday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group's meeting in Vietnam.

 

On Sunday, Duterte crooned hit Filipino love song "Ikaw" (You) at a gala dinner for summit leaders in Manila, saying it was on "the orders" of Trump.

 

One of the song's verses, translated from Filipino, begins: "You are the light in my world, a half of this heart of mine".

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, I sang uninvited, upon the orders of the commander-in-chief of the United States," Duterte said later, according to the ABS-CBN news channel.

 

Duterte's Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told reporters that the two leaders got on well, after a tense relationship between Duterte and Obama.

 

"The issue between President Duterte and former President Barack Obama is a thing of the past," Andanar said.

 

"They really hit it off."

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Karen Lema; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Robert Birsel)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-13

 

[Jingthing]

It was much more honorable to be insulted by that mass murderer Duterte than to be serenaded by him. Embarrassing being an American these days with such a dictator loving / dictator wannabe president. He doesn't represent American values. Electing him was an accident, but now how to fix the mistake? 

[Ramen087]

ten months in office, three years and two months until the re-election party... mending relationships across the globe, the current CIC schmoozes the USA back to relevancy and a true world leadership role... as is always should have been...

[Jingthing]

14 minutes ago, Ramen087 said:

ten months in office, three years and two months until the re-election party... mending relationships across the globe, the current CIC schmoozes the USA back to relevancy and a true world leadership role... as is always should have been...

That's delusional. The USA under trump has dramatically RETREATED from global leadership. 

[Luckysilk]

30 minutes ago, Ramen087 said:

ten months in office, three years and two months until the re-election party... mending relationships across the globe, the current CIC schmoozes the USA back to relevancy and a true world leadership role... as is always should have been...

Absolutely regaining strength, look at the economy.

 

Globally the only ones suffering are the leftie socialist millionaires, Hollywood is in meltdown and their sicko actord losing credibility bigot, the world sees President Trump as the man who will make America great again.

 

 

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, Luckysilk said:

Absolutely regaining strength, look at the economy.

 

Globally the only ones suffering are the leftie socialist millionaires, Hollywood is in meltdown and their sicko actord losing credibility bigot, the world sees President Trump as the man who will make America great again.

 

 

No, the world sees trump as a lying old fool. Have you checked the polls?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/27/politics/trump-world-confidence-report/index.html

 

[Naam]

33 minutes ago, Luckysilk said:

Absolutely regaining strength, look at the economy.

 

Globally the only ones suffering are the leftie socialist millionaires, Hollywood is in meltdown and their sicko actord losing credibility bigot, the world sees President Trump as the man who will make America great again.

 

 

[Morch]

1 minute ago, Naam said:

 

The Art of the Dill...

[boomerangutang]

1 hour ago, Luckysilk said:

Absolutely regaining strength, look at the economy.

Globally the only ones suffering are the leftie socialist millionaires, Hollywood is in meltdown and their sicko actord losing credibility bigot, the world sees President Trump as the man who will make America great again.

It's hard to isolate which one of Trump's stupid mistakes is more harmful.  It's a toss-up between sword-clashing with Kim, or GW.  Pulling out of GW will probably have more dire long-term effects than a war between US and NK.  So the pull-out from the Paris Accords is, to me, Trump's most harmful decision thus far.  Besides exacerbating pollution ww, it will kill tens of thousands of US jobs.  I detailed how that will happen, in earlier posts.

 

Trump resembles China's Xi:   Xi doesn't give a rat's ass for other countries' human rights violations.  Xi only cares about spreading China's control as far as possible, and about maintaining his and his buddies' control in China, and getting as rich as possible in the process.     Trump is the same.  He embraces Duterte (and Putin and Turkey's Erodogan, etc) even though such men have blood of hundreds of innocents dripping from their hands.   If Trump sees a way to make some money (Trump Tower in Manila, etc),  all else is moot.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by boomerangutang

[mamypoko]

17 hours ago, Jingthing said:

It was much more honorable to be insulted by that mass murderer Duterte than to be serenaded by him. Embarrassing being an American these days with such a dictator loving / dictator wannabe president. He doesn't represent American values. Electing him was an accident, but now how to fix the mistake? 

Damn, JT, these are some strange ass times. I'm often met by my friends from other countries with "did you see what Trump did?" At first they were just teasing me about it, now they actually look concerned. 

[BuaBS]

Duterte courts China as well as the US & Russia. Kinda like Thailand.

[Gecko123]

On ‎13‎/‎11‎/‎2560 at 5:34 PM, Luckysilk said:

Absolutely regaining strength, look at the economy.

 

Globally the only ones suffering are the leftie socialist millionaires, Hollywood is in meltdown and their sicko actord losing credibility bigot, the world sees President Trump as the man who will make America great again.

 

 

 

Here is another poll which shows that 86% of Europeans and 90% of French people have a negative opinion of Trump.

 

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2017/11/02/01003-20171102ARTFIG00372-sondage-neuf-francais-sur-dix-ont-une-opinion-negative-de-donald-trump.php

 

The world leaders who have affected good relations with Trump are doing so out of expediency, not out of any genuine respect for the man. The Chinese, Russian and Japanese leaders (all astute judges of character) are all opting to flatter Trump, in an effort to manage their relationship with him. Macron is making a bid to play a greater role in EU leadership, and is trying to position himself as the "Trump whisper," but I doubt there is much admiration or respect behind the facade.The rest expressing favorable opinions of him are autocrats like Erdogon, Duerte, el-Sissi, etc., who Trump has helped legitimize by turning a blind eye to their human rights violations.