Earlier Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over his “son of a bitch” remark while referring to Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope.
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During the visit, he said he will also have the opportunity to interact with the leaders of participating countries to discuss bilateral issues of mutual concern.
This would be the eighth meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Obama in two years.
To that end, Obama announced the US would double its spending on bomb-clearing efforts to $90 million over three years – a relatively small sum for the USA but a significant investment for a small country in one of the poorer corners of the world.
“For many people, war is something people read about in books”, Obama said while touring a facility where crutches and prosthetic legs of all sizes were strewn.
The $90 million to clean up bombs joins another $100 million the US has committed in the past 20 years.
Obama has said that the United States has a moral obligation to clean up, while refraining from offering a formal apology for a campaign the American people did not know about.
He also expressed thanks to the government of Laos for its contribution to efforts to repatriate the remains of USA service personnel declared missing in action over several years.
Obama was asked at a news conference in China on Monday whether he intends to meet Duterte, as planned, at a gathering in Laos this week of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
For Obama, the visit is a capstone to his years-long effort to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries long overlooked by the United States.
Obama was slated to tout his so-called Asia pivot policy and his legacy in the region in a speech later Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, the White House said on Wednesday.
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In a statement read by his spokesman, Duterte said his “strong comments” in response to questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the USA president”.
