MANILA -- Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has skipped the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit here early to meet a visitor in his home country.
"The Prime Minister of Laos, we have been informed, has a state visitor in Vientiane," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement Tuesday.
He was the first world leader to leave the Philippines.
Prior to assuming the post of Prime Minister, he was deputy prime minister from 2001 to 2016 and was a minister of foreign affairs from 2006 to 2016.
Laos is one of the ASEAN’s 10 member states. The others are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The summit is being hosted by the Philippines themed "Partnering for Change, Engaging the World." (PNA)
