Obama cancelled on Tuesday’s planned meeting with Duterte on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-hosted summit after the notoriously acid-tongued Philippine president launched a barrage of insults the previous day.
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US President Barack Obama waves to the media as he arrives for the gala dinner of ASEAN leaders and its Dialogue Partners in Vientiane, Laos.
This came after Duterte, in a press conference Monday, warned Obama against bringing up the issue of alleged human rights violations in the country’s drug war during the summit.
The Philippines voiced regret for Duterte’s comments after Obama cancelled a formal bilateral meeting.
They met briefly on Wednesday night before a leaders’ dinner, but only exchanged “pleasantries”, according to the White House.
“I don’t take these comments personally because it seems as if this is a phrase he’s used repeatedly including directed at the pope and others”, he said, adding that such choice words were “a habit, a way of speaking for him”.
Duterte, who assumed the presidency in June, has had an uneasy relationship with the US, his country’s longtime treaty ally.
“It could hardly be perceived as an opportunity because Duterte often talks incoherently and is temperamentally unstable”, said Li Jinming, professor of global relations at the Research School of Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University in China’s Fujian province.
Duterte’s drive has won popular support at home but the killings have drawn expressions of concern from the United States, a close Philippine ally, and the United Nations.
The leaders played down differences over the South China Sea in a carefully worded statement, mentioning only that several of them were “seriously concerned over recent developments” in the waterway that is the most volatile hotspot in the region.
He has said he is charting a foreign policy that is not dependent on the US, and has moved to reduce tensions with China over rival territorial claims.
Their first face-to-face encounter took place before the start of a dinner for the leaders attending the summit.
It released photographs and a map showing what it said was an increased number of Chinese vessels near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which China seized after a standoff in 2012.
Duterte spoke after Obama had delivered a speech that referred to human rights. “I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States”.
President Barack Obama responded to Donald Trump’s latest critique of his administration with a chuckle on Thursday and appealed for voters to challenge the Republican nominee’s “wacky ideas”.
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One Cabinet member, Jesus Dureza, said he asked Duterte how his talk with Obama went.
