US seeks to avoid clash with Duterte over alliance

As the clock winds down, the Obama administration has set itself one last objective in Asia — to avoid a messy, public fight with the populist and headline-grabbing new president of the Philippines.

In his three months in office, Rodrigo Duterte has made an almost weekly habit of taking potshots at the US-Philippines alliance in a series of inflammatory comments.

As well as telling its longstanding ally to “go to hell” and talking favourably about Hitler, Mr Duterte has threatened to cancel future joint naval drills with the US and has called into question a new defence agreement signed with Washington last year.

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