US President Donald Trump tweeted his arrival in the Philippines in Sunday night, saying “Just landed in the Philippines after a great day of meetings and events in Hanoi, Vietnam!”
Trump earlier offered to mediate in a territorial dispute over the resource-rich South China Sea, after years of Chinese island-building in the contested waters.
Trump’s surprise proposal to insert himself into the decades-long row risked a backlash from China, which has repeatedly said the United States has no role to play in what it insists is a series of bilateral issues.
“If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know… I am a very good mediator,” Trump told Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi during an official state visit.
President Rodrigo Duterte also said Trump had already given him “words of encouragement” about how the Philippines is handling the drug war and the fight against IS-inspired terrorists during a brief encounter on the sidelines of another regional summit in Vietnam on Saturday.
“He said something about: ‘You know, you handle it very well’,” Duterte told reporters early Sunday morning after returning to Manila.
He said Trump was referring to the crackdown on drugs as well as a military campaign against Islamic State supporters in the southern Philippines.
(Eagle News Service with a report from Agence France Presse)