Philippine officials say their president, Rodrigo Duterte, has met informally with President Barack Obama in a holding room before attending a gala dinner at a regional summit.
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United States president Barack Obama today met a survivor maimed by American bombs covertly dropped on Laos decades ago after pledging to help clean up a country he said was still living in the shadow of war.
“I’m very happy that it happened”, Philippines’ foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, said of their short meeting.
“With my recent visit to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, we’ve shown our commitment to fully normalizing our relationship with Vietnam”, Obama said.
On Monday, hours before arriving in Laos, Duterte told Philippine reporters he wouldn’t accept questions from Obama about extrajudicial killings that have occurred during his crackdown on suspected drug dealers and users.
In commenting about his cancellation of the meeting with Duterte, Mr Obama said, “Clearly he’s a colorful guy”.
Duterte expressed regret for his word choice the next day and thanked Obama, in a written statement, for the continued support of his country. Duterte blasted Obama as a “son of a bitch” and warned he would not tolerate any violation of Philippines sovereignty he said such a question would entail, after which the White House canceled their planned parley.
Obama has said that the USA has a moral obligation to clean up, while refraining from offering a formal apology for a campaign the American people did not know about.
The spat with Duterte stolen attention away form Obama’s final trip to Asia as president, in which he hoped to cement his administration’s effort to “rebalance” USA foreign policy toward the region.
Obama sat next to the sultan of Brunei and chatted with him as reporters were briefly allowed in.
Since he took office, more than 1,900 people have died, including at least 700 in police operations. I can’t say how long they met.
The new Philippines president did not just obliterate the rules of behavior of the global leader’s club with his remarks.
Obama strongly supports the agreement between the USA and 11 other countries to reduce tariffs on thousands of goods, but there is strong resistance to it in Congress. Both major presidential candidates also oppose TPP.
General Heng Ratana says the United States also dropped tons of bombs on Cambodia but has given small amounts to help with their clearance.
Former U.S. officials said China would be pleased by the U.S. -Philippines friction.
A spokesman for Duterte later expressed remorse that his comments “came across as a personal attack on the US president”.
“The more optimistic read would be, it’s still early days, this is a president who is just over two months into his presidency”, said Parameswaran.
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Obama called off one-on-one talks with Duterte following the latter’s expletive-laden outburst.
