President Donald Trump may yet skip this year’s Summit of the Americas in Peru, officials said Wednesday, amid sour US relations with southern neighbors. “Summit attendance has not been confirmed” a White House official told AFP, after Trump spoke by phone with the host, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. An official White House statement on the call was mute on whether Trump would make the journey for the April 13-14 event, which brings together leaders from the Western Hemisphere. “The two leaders discussed the upcoming Summit of the Americas, which Peru will host next month,” the statement read. The first Summit of the Americas took place in Miami in 1994, and it has long been a forum for the United States to influence events across in the Western Hemisphere.

Source: Manila Bulletin March 07, 2018 19:52 UTC