MANILA, Philippines — A former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) urged yesterday President Duterte to accept the invitation of US President Donald Trump to attend the US-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit slated in the United States.

Albert del Rosario, DFA secretary of former president Benigno Aquino III, said the summit in March would present an excellent opportunity to discuss relations with Washington and improvement of mutual defense agreements.

“Should our President wish to improve the MDT (Mutual Defense Treaty) and the VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement), he may wish to accept the invitation to meet President Trump,” Del Rosario said.

“This would present an excellent opportunity for our President to place on the table his full expectations pertaining to our bilateral relations,” he added.

He said the VFA is an essential agreement to both the Philippines and the US in effectively implementing the MDT.

While admitting that the VFA is an imperfect agreement, the former DFA chief said that terminating it would interrupt the benefits of the MDT with respect to joint training and exercises; the pursuit of modernization; achieving interoperability, and providing assistance during natural calamities.

Without the VFA, making the MDT work would be more challenging, said Del Rosario, adding that “we now have specific external threats as well as more devastating natural calamities.”

He said that terminating the VFA would only serve “to actualize our pivot towards China against the strong and vehement objections of our people.”

The President recently threatened to terminate the VFA unless the US reverses its cancellation of the US visa of his close ally, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.