(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte was unable to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-United Nations Summit on Monday night because of the series of scheduled bilateral meetings with other countries he had to attend.
In a text message to reporters, Foreign Affairs acting spokesperson Robespierre Bolivar said that Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano attended the summit in Duterte’s place.
Bolivar said the President had several bilateral meetings with India, Japan, South Korea and Russia late Monday night.
A check showed that at the time the ASEAN-UN Summit started, Duterte was holding bilateral talks with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
“The meetings were already running beyond schedule so, to avoid further delaying the ASEAN-UN Summit, it was decided that SFA [Secretary of Foreign Affairs] represent the President while he was meeting bilaterally with the other Leaders,” Bolivar said.
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