Trump Lauds ‘Great Relationship’ With Duterte in Manila<br />13, 2017<br />MANILA — President Trump said on Monday that he had a "great relationship" with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, making little mention of human rights<br />at his first face-to-face meeting with an authoritarian leader accused of carrying out a campaign of extrajudicial killings in his nation’s war on drugs.<br />" Mr. Roque said on Monday. that President Trump specifically said he has always been a friend<br />of the Duterte administration, unlike the previous administrations of the United States,<br />"He stressed that he can be counted upon as a friend of the Duterte administration." Mr. Trump raised eyebrows in April by inviting Mr. Duterte to the White House during<br />what American officials called a "very friendly conversation" on the phone in which the president praised the Philippine leader’s efforts to rid his country of drugs.<br />He said that while "the other hotheads" would like confrontation, "the South China Sea is better left untouched."<br />"Nobody can afford to go to war," Mr. Duterte added, including Russia, China, Britain and the United States.<br />"This has been very successful." As journalists shouted questions about whether Mr. Trump<br />would press Mr. Duterte on human rights, the Philippine president quickly silenced them.
