Public Domain image - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte from July 26 to 27
- Kerry will also meet his Filipino counterpart, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay
- Kerry will be the first top diplomat from another country to visit Duterte
The United States Secretary of State John Kerry is slated to visit Manila to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a press statement by Mark C. Toner, Deputy Department Spokesperson, Secretary John Kerry will visit the Philippines from July 26 to 27 to meet with President Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay “to discuss the full range of our cooperation with the new administration.”
Rappler noted that Secretary John Kerry is the first top diplomat of another country to visit President Duterte in the Philippines.
Kerry’s scheduled visit comes days after the Philippines won a historic case against China over the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). The United Nations-backed international arbitration court at The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines when it declared that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources, in excess of the rights provided for by the Convention, within the sea areas falling within the ‘9-dash line.’”
Before going to the Philippines, Secretary Kerry will travel to Vientiane, Laos, from July 25-26 to participate in the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ASEAN-U.S. Ministerial Meeting, and the Lower Mekong Initiative Ministerial Meeting.
Toner said, Secretary Kerry will be discussing the region’s security architecture and shared transnational challenges including maritime security, Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the South China Sea.
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