News in photo: Duterte beside Putin, behind Xi in APEC family photo in Vietnam
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte attended the picturing taking for the so-called family photo of world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017.
He stood beside Russian President Vladimir Putin and behind China’s President Xi. On Duterte’s other side is Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
United States President Donald Trump stood next to Putin.
Pictured from left to right are Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull; Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah; Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam; Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski; Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet; Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; China’s President Xi Jinping; Russia President Vladimir Putin; Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang; US President Donald Trump; Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo; Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha; Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in; New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak; Taiwan’s representative James Soong and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto.
President Duterte, however, failed to attend the APEC gala dinner on Friday night, Nov. 10, 2017.
Foreign Affairs secretary and former senator Alan Peter Cayetano attended in his stead. Cayetano was accompanied by his wife, Taguig City mayor Lani Cayetano.
Duterte skipped the dinner because he was attending to urgent matters regarding the final preparations for the ASEAN Summit hosting of the Philippines, and getting information and coordinating with his officials in Manila regarding the recovery of Vietnamese captives of the terrorist group, the Abu Sayyaf.
He thus failed to be in the photo of APEC leaders who came to the gala dinner.