CBS News reported Wednesday that the President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Obama met in Laos despite the former’s profanity-laced attacks, which initially led to the cancellation of a meeting between the two that had been scheduled for Monday in the Philippines.
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Obama and Duterte shook hands and briefly chatted at a holding room Wednesday night before a gala dinner.
On Tuesday Mr Obama cancelled planned talks after the firebrand Mr Duterte called him the “son of a whore”.
Obama and Dutere meet “briefly” on the sidelines of an global summit in Laos, Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay told The Associated Press. He said he wanted to be sure that any meeting between them would be productive.
The meeting with the leader of a key American ally in the region had been intended in part to remind the Chinese government that the US has strong relationships in Southeast Asia, all part of Obama’s strategy of providing a strong counterbalance to the rising Chinese power on the continent.
The India-Asean summit will be attended by the leaders of 10 southeast Asian nations – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.
Duterte has been defiant toward worldwide criticism of his anti-drug campaign, saying drugs are a pandemic and his crackdown a matter of national security.
“They were the last people to leave the holding room”.
Philippines ambassador to Laos, Marciano Paynor, said the tiff with Obama was part of a learning curve for Duterte, who needed a chance to make the transition from being a city mayor to a head of state.
The White House made the announcement of the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in its official announcement of the President’s schedule.
Duterte later expressed “regret” for his comments. I can’t say how long they met. “And I’m very happy it happened”.
Declaring a “moral obligation” to heal the wounds of a secret war, President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged help to clear away the 80 million unexploded bombs the US dropped on Laos a generation ago – more than 10 for every one of the country’s 7 million people.
When President Obama cancelled his meeting with President Duterte, he said the “Filipino people are some of our closest friends and allies and the Philippines is a treaty ally of ours”.
President Barack Obama says the United States focuses on improving human rights in other nations when he travels overseas because it has learned that if you don’t respect all people or religions, then it results in conflict. “Do not just throw away questions and statements”. Now, because he cursed out Obama’s mother, he doesn’t have to; instead of apologizing for overseeing executions, he can say sorry for his dirty mouth.
The U.S.is the Philippines’ second-largest trade partner after China.
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The president pointed to discussions with Southeast Asian leaders about maritime disputes in the South China Sea and suggested progress had been made in clarifying the path ahead to lower tensions between China and the Philippines. “Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum”, Duterte said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch”.
