Controversial Rodrigo Duterte branded the president the child of a prostitute in front of journalists a day before their planned meeting in Laos, ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the country.
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He was again in the spotlight Tuesday when he trooped into a conference hall in the Laotian capital of Vientiane wearing a traditional Filipino shirt with sleeves rolled up, and hands in pant pockets.
Other leaders to come for an East Asia summit on Thursday include from Australia, India and New Zealand.
Obama, who was in China for a Group of 20 meeting, departed Monday for Laos, becoming the first us president to visit the nation.
Official figures released show that, since he took office on June 30, over 2,400 people have been killed in police anti-drug operation.
Duterte had warned Obama not to ask him about extrajudicial killings related to his crackdown on drug dealers, a campaign pledge that helped sweep him to victory in the country’s presidential election in May.
“President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon”, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.
He said he wants to chart “an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations, especially the United States with which the Philippines has a long standing partnership”.
“Nobody has a right to lecture me”, Duterte said. Do not just throw away questions and statements. “Son of a bitch, I will swear at you”, Duterte said in Philippines on Monday. On Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over the remarks, but the damage was already done.
Duterte blamed the USA, which ran the Philippines as a colony until 1946, for spawning the country’s current problems.
The president is visiting the nation for the ASEAN summit.
However, diplomats say strains with longtime ally the Philippines could compound Washington’s difficulties in forging a united front with Southeast Asian partners on the geostrategic jostle with Beijing over the South China Sea. “There’s a protocol for that”, Duterte said.
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This is not the first time the Philippine president has branded a United States official the “son of a whore”. An global arbitration panel recently ruled that China’s expansive claims in the sea are illegal. The outreach is a core element of Obama’s attempt to shift USA diplomatic and military resources away from the Middle East and into Asia in order to counter China’s dominance in the region and ensure a foothold in growing markets. He sought to address worries that United States’ new focus on Asia will leave smaller nations as pawns in a chess match between the USA and China.
