PRESIDENT Duterte will virtually participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders summit this week.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed Duterte will be attending the series of ASEAN events from October 26 to 28, 2021
“Our President will attend via Zoom or computer hook-up,” Roque said in a virtual briefing.
The 10 member=states of ASEAN—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines—will meet among themselves before the regional bloc meets with other countries.
Roque said the ASEAN will engage South Korea, China, United States, Japan, Australia, India, Russia in its summit this week.
Among the expected issues at the ASEAN summit will be the military takeover of the Myanmar government in February this year.
Days before the meeting, Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. has pushed for a more definitive stance from ASEAN members on the issue amid mounting international pressure for the bloc to adopt a tough stance against the Myanmar junta, which detained the top civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, among others.