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Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. will represent President Duterte in the special summit between the United States and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Duterte had earlier expressed regrets to the invitation of US President Joe Biden to attend the US-Asean Summit slated on May…
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. MANILA - Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. will represent Manila in a leaders' summit between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) next week, Philippine Ambassador to US Jose Manuel Romualdez confirmed. The envoy said the top diplomat would attend on behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte, who opted not to attend as the summit falls on a date when the country would have already named its president-elect. "It is unfortunate that the summit is scheduled for May 12 shortly after our elections, that is why I totally understand why President Duterte cannot attend it. As the President pointed out, we will definitely have a president-elect by then, so he was being prudent, opting not to attend out of delicadeza, and avoid making decisions or commitments at the summit that might not be aligned with the policies of our next president," Romualdez wrote in a Labor Day column on Philstar. "S
At the conclusion of the 2020 US elections, we immediately reached out to Antony Blinken, who is now Secretary of State, and other advisers such as Deputy Assistant to the President and White House National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr. Ely Ratner.