President Trump touted his negotiating skills as he inserted himself in a dispute among Asian nations over control of busy shipping channels in the South China Sea, saying “if I can help you, let me know.”
“South China Sea – as you know, we’re looking at – we’re looking at it together. If I could help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know,” Trump said in Vietnam on Sunday before leaving to attend a summit of Asian leaders in the Philippines. “I know we’ve had a dispute for quite a while with China. If I can help in any way, I’m a very good mediator and a very good arbitrator. I have done plenty of it from both sides. So if I can help you, let me know.”
But Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who is hosting the summit in Manila, quickly shot down Trump’s offer to help with the contested waterway.
“We have to be friends, the other hotheads would like us to confront China and the rest of the world on so many issues,” Duterte said. “The South China Sea is better left untouched, nobody can afford to go to war. It can ill-afford a violent confrontation.”
China claims to control the body of water where trillions of dollars of goods pass through each year. But its claims are contested by other countries in the region, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia the Philippines and Brunei.
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