Presidential aide Ben Rhodes later told reporters the USA canceled the two leaders’ one-on-one meeting after the remark because “the nature of those comments was not constructive and… having a meeting where all we were gonna discuss was a series of comments, frankly did not strike us as the most constructive way to approach a bilateral meeting”.
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Nevertheless, there was barely concealed tension at the summit of East Asian and Southeast Asian nations in Laos.
The summit ended with Laos turning over the chairmanship of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Duterte, whose country will host the annual diplomatic gathering next year.
“I have confidence that if, in fact, people just listen to what he had to say, look at his track record or lack thereof, that they’ll make a good decision”, he said. He said it was a mutually agreed meeting, although he didn’t have details of what was discussed.
He said, “they could number about 200”, referring to the Filipino fatalities.
Its defense ministry expressed “grave concern” that China was preparing to build structures at the shoal.
Duterte has bristled at criticism from overseas of his war on drugs, in which more than 2,400 people have been killed since he became president two months ago.
Following the cancellation of the scheduled first meeting between the two leaders, they were reported to have met informally on the sidelines of the summit. Duterte’s remarks came after Obama raised concerns about the human rights violations allegedly being committed as part of the Philippine leader’s bloody drug war.
Obama has made 11 trips to the region as US president.
US President Barack Obama hit back at Donald Trump on Thursday for criticising his foreign policy record, saying the Republican nominee was unfit to follow him into the Oval Office and the public should press him on his “outright wacky ideas”.
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“I have said before and I will say again failure to move ahead with TPP. will call into question America’s leadership”, Obama said in Laos. ― Picture taken from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Facebook pageKUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has praised United States President Barack Obama for enhancing US-Asean relations under his presidency.
