Duterte, Singapore PM provide comic relief during Asean handshake

BANGKOK — President Duterte and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong provided some comic relief yesterday during the usually serious opening of the 34th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit here when the two leaders struggled to “link up” for the traditional ASEAN handshake among the regional leaders.

Duterte, 74, went to the side of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi while overlapping his arms for the handshake, creating about two feet distance from the 67-year-old Lee who tried to reach for the Philippine leader’s hands.

As Lee gestured to Duterte to reach his hand, the other leaders and participants were seen smiling for the photo opportunity.

Duterte then urged Suu Kyi and Malaysian Prime Minister  Mahathir Mohamad to move toward the center of the stage to be able to link with the rest of the group. They then did the ASEAN handshake and all smiled for the traditional crossed-arms group photo.

In 2017, US President Donald Trump also had an awkward handshake with ASEAN leaders when he struggled reaching for the hands of Duterte and Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also at the opening ceremony of the summit in Manila. The same quickly spread across social media.

Meanwhile, Duterte had a perfect attendance at the 34th ASEAN summit over the weekend without missing any activity.

The Chief Executive joined the rest of the regional leaders at the ASEAN Gala Dinner hosted by Thailand for the leaders and their respective delegation.

Leave no one behind

Prior to the traditional picture-taking, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha underscored in his opening remarks the importance of an ASEAN community that is people-centered and leaves no one behind in accordance with the theme “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability.”

The ASEAN leaders also launched the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN or DELSA and the inclusion of the ASEAN Center of Military Medicine or the ACMM as a subsidiary body in Annex 1 of the ASEAN Charter.

Chan-o-cha said the two centers would enhance the ASEAN’s disaster response and management capabilities.

“We have been through thick and thin together, overcoming challenges from the Cold War to the present. And when the financial and economic crisis hit Asia, the ASEAN joined hands with each other and its friends, becoming a key force in the region’s rapid recovery,” he said.

“And when natural disasters struck, whether earthquakes, tsunamis or cyclones, we in the ASEAN never turned our backs on one another, but instead always lent each other a helping hand out of a sense of unity in one community,” he added.

Chan-o-cha noted that the region remains peaceful, with no war and conflict because the majority are “consistently reminded to respect differences and diversity and aspire to live together in peace and harmony.”

“We aspire to strengthen ‘partnership’ through deepening cooperation both within the ASEAN and with our external partners so as to reinforce ASEAN centrality in the region and enhance the ASEAN’s role in addressing important regional and global issues,” the Thai leader said.

He pushed to further strengthen partnership that “includes the promotion of connectivity in all dimensions, from digital infrastructure, rules and regulations, to people-to-people links.”