*Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2017 *

**Remarks to Reporters Following the East Asia Summit in Manila, Philippines **

*November 14, 2017 *

Thank you very much. We just had a great luncheon with all of the leaders, and I had a lot of things to say. I gave closing remarks. The Philippines has hosted us beautifully, and we went through a long number of days, 12 days. We're just heading back to the plane now. We'll be going back to Washington.

We'll make some comments probably tomorrow afternoon, only because we have to let the media recover. [*Laughter*] They want to recover. When I said we'll do it on Wednesday morning, they all said, could we do it later than that? So I'm going to do that for the media. So maybe Wednesday afternoon or maybe Thursday morning, whichever is most convenient.

But we've had a tremendously successful trip. Tremendous amounts of work was done on trade, not only on the deals—and we have at least $300 billion worth of deals, but that will be, I think, way triple that number in a fairly short period of time.

But I think much more importantly, we've explained that the United States is open for trade, but we want reciprocal trade. We want fair trade for the United States, because with past administrations—as I said in China and I said very loud and very clear—the United States has been taken advantage of. They're very giving, and they don't get in return.

So we want fair trade. We want reciprocal trade. And you'll see a lot of great things happen. We're also very open; we're open for trade. But we have to be treated fairly. We have to be treated in a reciprocal fashion.

So it's been an incredible 12 days. I've enjoyed it immensely. I've made a lot of friends at the highest level, whether it's China and the incredible opening they gave us, that unbelievable evening. People really have never seen anything like it: going to the Forbidden City and a theater that hadn't been open in over a hundred years, and the level of talent that we watched. It was really something special.

And then we had great meetings in China. And Japan, likewise, it was a tremendous rollout, and we—from the moment we walked off the plane and back on to the plane. In South Korea, as you know, we made a speech. I believe seldom has there been the opportunity to speak for somebody from the outside world in that hall. So South Korea was terrific to us, and we obviously talked about North Korea. We talked about trade. We talked about lots of different things. But certainly, in South Korea and Japan, a primary emphasis was on North Korea.

And coming to the Philippines was terrific, and coming to Vietnam was terrific. Vietnam is ordering at least $12 billion worth of Boeings, and I think they were going a different route. But now they're going the route of ordering from us. And the reason I like the Boeing is because it's jobs for the United States. It's not jobs for somebody else. It's jobs for the United States.

Vietnam treated us incredibly, as did—I mean, the Philippines, we just could not have been treated nicer. And as you know, we were having a lot of problems with the Philippines. So the relationship with the past administration was horrible, to use a nice word. I would say "horrible" is putting it mildly. You know what happened. Many of you were there, and you never got to land. The plane came close, but it didn't land.

And now we have a very, very strong relationship with the Philippines, which is really important, less so for trade, in this case, than for military purposes. It is a strategic location, the most strategic location. And if you look at it, it's called the most prime piece of real estate from a military standpoint.

So it's very important that we get along with the Philippines, and we really do. We have a very good relationship, I would actually say probably better than ever before.

So we've accomplished a lot. I've enjoyed it very much. My press—I feel so sorry for them—they're exhausted. [*Laughter*] Would you like to stop in another couple of countries? Because we can do that if you want. [*Laughter*] Otherwise, we'll go to the plane, and we'll take off. But we'll be landing in Washington in about 22 hours.

So I appreciate everybody. And I very much appreciate your time. I know how hard you worked also. We all worked hard. But I think the fruits of our labor are going to be incredible, whether it's security of our nations, whether it's security of the world, or whether it's trade. And it's going to really amount to a lot.

Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:43 p.m. at the Philippine International Convention Center.

*Categories:* Addresses and Remarks : East Asia Summit in Manila, Philippines, remarks to reporters*.*

*Locations: *Manila, Philippines.* *

*Subjects:* Asia : East Asia Summit; China : Relations with U.S.; Commerce, international : Free and fair trade; Commerce, international : U.S. exports :: Expansion; Japan : Relations with U.S.; North Korea : International diplomatic efforts; Philippines : President Trump's visit; Philippines : Relations with U.S.; South Korea : Relations with U.S.; South Korea : Trade with U.S.; Vietnam : Relations with U.S.; Vietnam : Trade with U.S.

*DCPD Number:* DCPD201700858.