Obama and Duterte are in the Laotian capital along with other regional leaders for the summit.
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“The media from all over the world, including from the Philippines, are up in excitement as each await the event where the two leaders will possibly say something positive”, the statement from the presidential palace said.
In a statement, Communications Assistant Secretart Queenie Rudolfo said Duterte paid a courtesy call on Laos President Bounnhang Vorachith at 7 p.m., half an hour after the dialogue.
“They were the last people to leave the holding room”.
However several substantive bilateral issues remain to be discussed, said officials, including India’s NSG membership bid, and the USA administration’s hope that India will ratify the Climate Change agreement from Paris by the end of 2016.
During his two terms at the helm of affairs in the White House, President Obama has effected a rebalancing of the US’ foreign policy with 60 per cent of its strategic assets being redeployed in the Asia-Pacific region. It all springs from the fact the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong.
“President Duterte is a rock star not only in our country but also in other countries like Laos, Japan, and now the other foreign ministers and delegates have scrambled to get a selfie with our president”, Mr. Andanar said. “You must be respectful”.
“I recognise this raises tensions”, Obama said referring to the ruling “but I also look forward to discussing how we can constructively move forward together to lower tensions and promote diplomacy and stability”. Do not just throw away questions and statements.
However, the USA president cancelled the meeting after the Philippine leader warned him and other leaders against questioning his bloody anti-drug campaign with the words “son of a whore“. He used the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch”, and on Tuesday expressed regret that his comments came across as a personal attack against the USA leader.
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“Frankly, where we’ve had differences with President Duterte has related more to our concerns that there needs to be a clear commitment to due process and the rule of law as it relates to some of the internal security efforts that had been undertaken there”, Earnest said.
