I agree with Niara on this. I think the line just comes off as obligatory. He's saying it because he feels it's what should be said in the situation, because he feels he should be polite. To me it comes off as him saying it kind of automatically, while his mind is on other things, for example, the alien parasite in his head or the magical explosive in his chest. I don't think he's being manipulative (not least because we see later that if he wanted to be manipulative, he can be much better at it) he's just talking.
