President Rodrigo Duterte has been invited to attend a summit between the United States and the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to be held in the US on March 14. The invitation, dated January 9, was sent by US President Donald Trump to Duterte and nine other leaders of Asean-member countries. The invitation was initially communicated during the Asean-US meeting at the Asean Summit and related summits in Bangkok last November. Trump has repeatedly invited Duterte to visit the US since April 2017 in a meeting that was expected to reaffirm the long-standing alliance between the two countries. Duterte later ordered the Bureau of Immigration to deny entry to Senators Dick Durbin (Illinois) and Patrick Leahy (Vermont), who had amended the US budget law to include the travel ban provision.

Source: Manila Times January 19, 2020 17:08 UTC