A summit of Southeast Asian leaders to discuss issues ranging from terrorism to South China Sea tensions opened Tuesday, overshadowed by the Philippine president’s intemperate comments in his debut appearance at the annual meeting.
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Eager to show he wouldn’t yield, Obama said he would “undoubtedly” still bring up human rights and due process concerns “if and when” the two do meet.
Obama arrived in Vientiane just before midnight on Monday for the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Laos, where he wants to begin to address the legacy of United States bombing during the Vietnam War.
Obama is recounting the nine-year “secret war” that the US conducted in Laos during the Vietnam War.
Obama’s visit to Laos is being seen not just as a mission to heal war wounds, but also as part of United States efforts to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries in what Washington has called “a pivot to Asia” in a bid to counter China’s dominance in the region.
Obama responded to the outburst by cancelling the talks, which prompted a Duterte to offer a qualified expression of regret.
He added that: “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me”.
Obama also spent about 90 minutes Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, another leader whose fate seems intertwined with Obama’s in all the wrong ways.
On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to visit an organization in Vientiane that works with people who have been disabled by unexploded ordnance. “A lot of countries are seeing volatile politics”.
President Barack Obama has pledged $90 million to Laos in a joint three-year project with the country’s government to clear tens of millions of unexploded USA bombs. Congressional leaders say they won’t consider it, even in a lame-duck session after the presidential election, and both Mr. Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton oppose it.
During his Monday outburst he said the bloodbath would continue.
“But I always want to make sure that if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done”.
He acknowledged being hamstrung on the issue with Asian leaders.
The freakish rift with the leader of a US treaty ally was the most glaring example of how Obama has frequently found himself bound to foreign countries and leaders whose ties to the USA are critical even if their values sharply diverge.
Duterte has been under intense global scrutiny over the more than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users killed since he took office.
The figure announced during President Barack Obama’s first visit to Laos is close to the $100 million the United States has spent in the past 20 years on clearing its UXO in Laos. “Do not just throw away questions and statements”. Using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch”, he said, “Putang ina I will swear at you in that forum”. But shortly after Mr. Duterte spoke, Mr. Obama raised doubts that he would meet with him.
The White House had earlier said Obama would not pull any punches on his concerns about human rights abuses in the Philippines, its treaty ally, when meeting Duterte.
The White House canceled the meeting and said Mr. Obama will meet instead with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
About 900 people linked to drugs have been killed in police operations since July 1 and a further 1,500 have been classed as “deaths under investigation”, a term human rights activists in the Philippines say is a euphemism for extrajudicial killings.
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“I don’t give a shit about anybody observing my behaviour”, he said.
