MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte will skip the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this month to concentrate on domestic issues.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Duterte wishes “to stay close to his countrymen in the first few months of his presidency.”

Duterte has asked Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay to represent him in the event, which will gather 53 leaders from Asia and Europe.

Earlier, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said foreign travel would not be a priority for Duterte for now as he wants to focus on local concerns first.

“He (Duterte) did say that he would like to spend more time first in the Philippines addressing domestic issues,” Abella said in an interview early this month.

“So maybe foreign travel is really not a priority at this stage,” he added.

The 11th ASEM Summit will be held from July 15 to 16 and will tackle “practical and functional cooperation” to address global challenges, including maritime security, connectivity and illegal drug trafficking.

During the meeting, Yasay is expected to discuss Duterte’s priorities and key socioeconomic policies as well as the country’s peaceful and rules-based approach on the West Philippine Sea row. The Philippines’s top diplomat is also expected to highlight the need for parties to respect the decision of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled that China’s expansive territorial claim has no legal basis.

ASEM is an informal dialogue process involving 51 countries from Asia and Europe and two organizations namely the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat and the European Union.

The Philippines is a founding member of the ASEM, which aims to address political, economic and socio-cultural issues and strengthen the ties between the two regions.

The ASEM Summit is held every two years, with the previous one held in Milan, Italy in 2014.