President Rodrigo Duterte also wants to halt the 28 military exercises that are carried out with US forces each year, Lorenzana said. “This year would be the last,” Duterte said of military exercises involving the Americans in a speech on Friday in southern Davao city where he lashed out at the US anew. I can always go to China.”In Washington, the state department spokesman, John Kirby, said the US government is not aware of any official notification on curtailing military exercises. “President Duterte’s shoot-from-the-hip style of parochial democracy is deeply troubling,” said Carl Thayer, an expert on the South China Sea. “I think it’s just going through these bumps on the road,” Lorenzana told a news conference.

Source: The Guardian October 07, 2016 22:19 UTC