Duterte Declines Trump Invite, Forbids U.S. Trip by His Cabinet
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he declined U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation for a summit with Southeast Asian leaders in March and is prohibiting his Cabinet officials from going to America.
Duterte said his decision to skip the U.S.-Asean summit was “for strategic and geopolitical reasons.” He rejected criticisms that his decision to end the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. was out of a whim after the U.S. visa of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s former police chief who oversaw the deadly drug war, was canceled.