United States Defense Secretary Ash Carter has expressed his concern over Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte's provocative comment on the ongoing drug war in the country.
In his speech in Davao City, Duterte equated himself to Adolf Hitler and said that he would 'be happy' to kill three million drug users and peddler for the country's benefit
Speaking to the reporters during a regional summit, Carter said: "Speaking personally for myself, I find those comments deeply troubling". According to the Associated Press, Carter also said he had not discussed Duterte comments with his Philippine counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana, who was also present at the summit of the Southeast Asian Nations at an Oahu resort.
"Like all alliances, it depends on the continuation of a sense of shared interests... So far in US-Philippine history we have had that. We look forward to continuing that. But that's something that we continue to discuss with the Philippine government," added carter, as reported by the news agency.
In his speech on 29 September, Duterte opined the critics have portrayed him "to be some cousin of Hitler"."There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte told Reuters, noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews.
"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...," he said as he paused and pointed at himself.
"You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition," Duterte added.
Before becoming the President, Duterte vowed to kill tens of thousands of criminals and to get rid of illegal drugs in the country in six months. However, recently he asked for some more time to complete his crackdown.
Referring to his promise, Duterte said last week: "I did not realise how severe and how serious the drug menace was in this republic until I became president."
Duterte had to face a lot of criticism from the United States, the European Union parliament and the United Nations who call the crackdown as extrajudicial killings.
