Duterte also vowed not to be lectured by the USA leader on human rights when they meet in Laos.
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It can be remembered that Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida paid a courtesy call to President Duterte at the Presidential Guest House in Panacan, Davao City on August 11, 2016.
The meeting between Obama and Duterte was rescheduled and will not occur this week while the two leaders are in Laso for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
During his Monday outburst he said the bloodbath would continue.
President Barack Obama says the US commitments to the Asia-Pacific region will endure over the long term. 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.
President Barack Obama looked to reassure Asian nations that the US commitment to the region would endure as concerns grow over China’s increasingly visible presence and the ability of Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
He said the United States has a “moral obligation” to help the isolated south-east Asian nation heal and vowed to reinvigorate relations with a country with rising strategic importance to America.
The money will be spent surveying the Asian nation for some 80 million unexploded cluster bombs dropped during a secret U.S. bombing campaign as part of the Vietnam War 40 years ago. He says American warplanes dropped more bombs on Laos than fell on Germany and Japan combined during World War II. He offered no apologies, calling the campaign and its aftermath reminders that “whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a bad toll”.
The meeting would have been the first between the two presidents. He met with Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit, was feted at a welcome banqueted, where he toasted to a relationship he said would “mean greater progress and opportunity for the people of Laos”.
When he addresses the Laotian people this week, President Obama is expected to acknowledge the damaging effect unexploded ordnance has had on Lao’s development, agriculture and tourism.
The menu included deep-fried bacon roll stuffed with minced prawn, braised duck breast and deep-fried Mekong fish.
He announced on Tuesday that Washington would provide an additional $90 million over the next three years to help Laos, heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, clear unexploded ordnance, which has killed or wounded more than 20,000 people.
The announcement came Tuesday during President Barack Obama’s visit to Laos.
Between 1964 and 1973, USA warplanes rained more than two million tons of bombs on Laotian villages and countryside to try and cut off the North Vietnamese Army’s supply trail.
“Our primary intention is to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations especially the U.S. with which we have a longstanding partnership”, Duterte’s statement said.
“I think the president should be advised on the art of diplomacy and the implications of the strategic importance of approaches to the intricacies of global relations”, said Lauro Baja, the Philippines’ former Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, according to ABS-CBN News.
Obama has been greeted by a military band, traditional dancers and a tropical rain.
Duterte has had a troublesome relation with the United States, questioning its inability to stop genocidal killings in the Middle East and Africa, and citing US police shootings of black Americans that have set off protests.
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