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Eugene

(61,593 posts)
Wed Oct 12, 2016, 09:35 PM Oct 2016

Obama's top Asia diplomat says baffled by Duterte pronouncements

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS | Wed Oct 12, 2016 | 2:55pm EDT

Obama's top Asia diplomat says baffled by Duterte pronouncements

By David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON

The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said on Wednesday he did not know what a "panoply" of statements by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte since taking office this year would mean for Manila's future security cooperation with Washington.

Duterte has made a series of conflicting statements about the future of his country's long-standing alliance with the United States. Last week he said U.S. President Barack Obama should "go to hell" and alluded to severing ties with Washington.On Wednesday, in an apparent break from a weeks-long torrent of anti-American rhetoric, Duterte said the Philippines would maintain its existing defense treaties and its military alliances.

But he added to the confusion when he said his foreign policy was to "realign" and reiterated that joint exercises with U.S. troops, a decades-old tradition, would be stopped.

Obama's senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, told a roundtable discussion with Washington defense journalists he was baffled.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-duterte-usa-idUSKCN12C2DE
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Obama's top Asia diplomat says baffled by Duterte pronouncements (Original Post) Eugene Oct 2016 OP
Duarte is probably compromised by the Chinese. Old and In the Way Oct 2016 #1

Old and In the Way

(37,540 posts)
1. Duarte is probably compromised by the Chinese.
Wed Oct 12, 2016, 09:42 PM
Oct 2016

I know a few Philippino's and they do not like the direction this guy is taking the country.

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