Acknowledging the “challenging history”, President Barack Obama on Tuesday opened a historic visit to this isolated Southeast Asian nation on a mission to heal war wounds and reinvigorate relations with a country with rising strategic importance to the U.S.
Advertisement
Earlier, President Barack Obama canceled a scheduled meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after he called the United States leader a “son of a w***e”.
Obama is now likely to meet South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday, according to Ned Price, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
“President Duterte explained that the press reports that President Obama would “lecture” him on extrajudicial killings led to his strong comments, which in turn elicited concern”, the Philippines government said.
Philippine leader responds to controversy by regretting that his statement came across as personal attack on US president. You must be respectful.
Obama is the first sitting USA president to set foot in the impoverished, landlocked country.
Duterte has been under intense global scrutiny over the more than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users killed since he took office.
The US can not handle the truth and this is the reason why President Barack Obama called off his meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, a lawmaker said.
In recent days, Mr. Duterte got irritated by USA officials, who kept on pressing him over human rights issue. “Do not just throw away questions and statements”.
Obama’s aides had previously said he wanted to discuss the South China Sea issue with Duterte in Laos. “Son of a whore, I will swear at you in that forum”.
Managing Duterte has become a worsening headache for Obama since the Filipino took office on June 30, pledging his foreign policy wouldn’t be constricted by reliance on the U.S. Washington has tried largely to look the other way as Duterte has pursued closer relations with China, a marked shift for the Philippines considering recent tensions over Beijing’s aspirations in the South China Sea.
“They can not handle their own hypocrisy when reminded of the 600,000 Filipinos, including our Moro brothers and sisters in Mindanao, who were slaughtered and killed in the name of its colonial and imperialist “benevolent assimilation” doctrine, of the victims of the Balangiga massacre, the Bud Dajo massacre, as well numerous other atrocities done by American forces throughout the country”, Zarate added. And U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also part of the “son of a bitch” club, after Ban said the drug killings were “illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms”.
A public break from the Philippines would put Obama in a tough position, given the Southeast Asian nation’s status as a longtime US ally. He’s also given the title to the US ambassador in Manila, whom Duterte also called “gay”.
The 10-member ASEAN will meet leaders of other regional powers: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Russia and the US.
An worldwide tribunal ruled in July that China’s claims to the waters-through which $5 trillion in global shipping trade passes-had no legal basis. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.
Advertisement
“Both delegations, however, have agreed that in the light of the issues that still need to be worked on, the bilateral meeting between the two nations will be postponed to a later date”, it added.
