Duterte slammed Obama on the subject, declaring that he was “no American puppet”.
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President Barack Obama said on Tuesday his push to rebalance USA foreign policy to focus more on Asia was not “a passing fad” of his presidency and, in a clear reference to China, said bigger countries should not dictate to smaller ones. The bombardment dropped more than 2 million tons of ordnance on the small nation, more than “we dropped on Germany and Japan, combined, in all of World War II”, Obama said.
Obama stops short of apologizing..
Obama said he asked his staff to determine if meeting with Duterte while in Laos would still be productive.
On Monday, Obama said he recognized the importance of fighting the drug trade, but insisted it must be done under the rule of law.
The White House canceled the meeting shortly after Duterte’s comments.
“We are going to work diligently together with the most recent United Nations sanctions, ” Obama told reporters after meeting with Park.
Still, he offered no apologies, calling the campaign and its aftermath reminders that “whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a bad toll”.
In an exhibit in downtown Vientiane, dozens and dozens of round “bombies”, each the size of a tennis ball, hang from the ceiling like necklaces.
Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on crime. Of all the provinces in landlocked Laos, only one has a comprehensive system to care for bomb survivors.
Under pouring rain on Tuesday Obama, the first U.S. president to hail from the post-Vietnam war generation, met his Lao counterpart Bounnhang Vorachith at the presidential palace in Vientiane. “Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue”, he said.
“Many of the bombs that were dropped never exploded”, Obama said.
The Lao government said it would increase efforts to recover remains and account for Americans missing since the Vietnam War.
Numerous bombings sought to cut off supplies to Vietnam, even though officially Laos was neutral in the Vietnam War.
As Duterte arrived in the Laos capital, Vientiane, for the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit on Monday evening, he was already rowing back on the remark, saying he did not want a fight.
The setback in US-Philippine relations comes at a crucial time in the region, with China seeking to cement control over the contested South China Sea.
Obama has worked hard to develop the Philippines’ partnership with the United States and as a regional counterbalance to China.
THE CANCELLATION of President Rodrigo Duterte’s meeting with US President Barack Obama is likely to raise tensions between the Philippines and US at a time Manila needs the support of allies against China’s military buildup at the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), analysts said on Tuesday.
White House officials previously said Obama would confront Duterte about his country’s handling of drug dealers, including extrajudicial killings, which are government executions without the benefit of judicial proceedings.
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President Obama on Tuesday became the first sitting US president to visit the small, communist Southeast Asian country and promised to double USA funding to help educate residents about the dangers and clear the bombs that remain in the ground.
