US President Donald Trump has decided at the last minute to extend a marathon trip to Asia, after criticism that he was expected to miss an East Asia regional summit.
“We’re actually staying an extra day in the Philippines,” Trump said on departure Friday, a decision that was confirmed by senior White House officials.
President Trump departed Washington for an almost two week trip to Asia Friday.
Trump left Joint Base Andrews bound for Hawaii — where he will receive a briefing from United States Pacific Command — before travelling on to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
He originally planned to skip the East Asia Summit which is happening on Nov. 14.
But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the US President will be spending an extra day in the Philippines to attend the East Asia Summit.
-“Great success” seen for Asia trip-
Before he departed for Asia, Trump said he is confident of bright prospects for his Asia trip.
“I think we’re going to have great success,” he said.
Trump’s trip itself had already promised to be anything but easy.
The main foreign policy item on the agenda will be efforts to contain or roll back North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear missile programs.
It is the longest presidential tour of Asia since George H.W. Bush visited in late 1991 and early 1992.
In a previous announcement, Trump was only to stay in the Philippines for only two days — or from November 12 to 13 — during the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings, and will also have a bilateral meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte.
Trump will join the special gala celebration dinner for the ASEAN’s 50 year on November 12, and then meet with President Duterte the next day, November 13.
He will attend the US-ASEAN Summit scheduled on Nov. 13, where security and economy, even issues about terrorism and North Korea, are expected to be discussed. In the US-ASEAN meeting, Trump is expected to extol the 40th year of US-ASEAN relationship.
The White House earlier indicated Trump will no longer attend the East Asia Summit in Clark, Pampanga, and that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will attend in Trump’s place.
But before his departure for Asia, Trump himself said that the already marathon trip will be extended to include an East Asia Summit in the Philippines, which he had been slated to miss.
(Reports from Agence France Presse, Eagle News Service)