The United States’s top diplomat is expected to raise concerns about human rights in the Philippines during a possible meeting with President Duterte when he visits Manila this week for Asia’s biggest security forum.
Acting US Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will raise all relevant issues in the US alliance with the Philippines, including concerns about human rights. She said a meeting with Duterte is being arranged.
Human-rights advocates have accused Duterte of unleashing “a human-rights calamity” with his war on illegal drugs, which has left thousands of suspects dead.
Department of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Robiespierre Bolivar said the Philippines is open to discussing its human-rights record.
Meanwhile, the top American and North Korean diplomats may cross paths during the Asean Summit next week in Manila, but have no plans to meet, the US said on Wednesday, as it sought to further isolate the North over its nuclear-weapons program.
Tillerson and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho are both attending the summit that is expected to focus heavily on regional concerns about Pyongyang. Thornton said Tillerson had no plans to sit down with Ri.
“I don’t expect to see that happen,” Thornton told reporters ahead of Tillerson’s trip. “What we would expect to see this year at the meeting would be a general chorus of condemnation of North Korea’s provocative behavior, and a pretty serious diplomatic isolation directed at the North Korean foreign minister.”
Tillerson’s reluctance to sit down with his North Korean counterpart comes despite his growing push for Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table with the US.
Tillerson said this week such talks would have to be predicated on the North giving up its nuclear-weapons aspirations and that the conditions for such talks haven’t yet been met by North Korea’s government.