PRESS RELEASE

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Duterte: Don’t Bring Up South China Sea

Nov. 12, 2017 (EIRNS)—Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Conference in Manila, which began today with a gala dinner for the guests. Duterte sat next to U.S. President Donald Trump during the dinner, chatting throughout.

At an earlier address to a pre-summit business meeting, Duterte said he had spoken with Xi Jinping at the APEC meeting in Vietnam about the South China Sea. He told the meeting:

"We have to be friends, the other hotheads would like us to confront China and the rest of the world on so many issues. The South China Sea is better left untouched, nobody can afford to go to war. It can ill-afford a violent confrontation."