Trump wishes Philippines’ Duterte well on anti-drug push

At the time, the Philippine President said, “Who does he think he is?” According to Go, Duterte had a “very engaging and animated phone conversation” with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

During the call, Trump said he hoped to visit Pakistan, a country Obama has avoided for the last eight years due to the countries’ “quite complicated” relationship.

“I can not preempt the President with regard to the rebooting of our relationship with the United States”.

“The President-elect Trump wishes to extend his warmest regards to the Filipino people”.

The president’s friendly tone with Trump was in contrast to his hostility towards outgoing President Barack Obama and Duterte’s frequent threats to sever ties with the country’s traditional ally.

Whatever the case, it would be reasonable to expect Duterte to get along far better with Trump: The two share similar trajectories to victory, fueling their campaigns with crass comments and s, like when Duterte joked about a murdered rape victim, or when he said he would.

Duterte, 71, launched an unprecedented war on drugs that drew a wave of global criticism with Obama urging him in September to conduct his campaign “the right way” following concerns over alleged extrajudicial killings.

Duterte earlier hit USA on the issue of human rights, announced “separation” from the Philippines’ decades-old ally, and declared he wants foreign troops out of the country.

In five months in office, he has upended Philippine foreign policy by berating the United States, pursuing a new alliance with Russian Federation and also China, with which Manila has a history of bitter disputes.

In Washington D.C., Trump’s transition team also released a “Read out of Calls with World Leaders” by the President-elect.

“I can always be a friend of anybody especially presidents, chief executive of another country”.

Duterte’s allies in the Philippine government have been as positive as Duterte himself.

“Trump expressed his inclination to attend the ASEAN”, the spokesman said. “And he was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem”. And he wishes us well.

“I don’t want to fight now that Trump’s there”, Duterte said after Trump’s victory in the November 8 election. “I would like to congratulate President Trump”. He said that during the call Trump endorsed his campaign against drug users and dealers – a campaign that has killed at least 4,500 Filipinos in about five months.

During a Friday phone call that a Duterte aide described as “animated”, Donald Trump extended an invitation to Duterte to visit the White House next year. “But we will always assert the need to have due process and to engage that fight against drugs in a way that’s consistent with basic global norms”.