Through the pictures, Najib said Duterte questioned the human rights bandied about by the U.S. while numerous people in Philippine were killed by the United States army. Duterte had his outburst on Monday when he was defending his war on drugs that has killed at least 2,400 Filipinos.
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VIENTIANE-President Rodrigo Duterte’s first appearance in an worldwide summit was “brilliant” despite criticisms of his “colorful” language and awkward moments on the world stage, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr.
So said President Rodrigo R. Duterte when asked by reporters on Friday how he would assess his “international debut” on global stage through his participation in the ASEAN summits in Laos.
Mr Duterte and Mr Obama have traded blows in a bruising diplomatic bust-up this week, culminating in a stand-off at an Asian summit over the crackdown in the Philippines that has left 3,000 dead.
As he prepared to leave Laos, Obama also said he would continue to work to fulfill his campaign promise to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which he called a recruitment tool for terrorism.
According to Reuters, Duterte was speaking in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Friday in which he explained to a group of Filipinos that he did not direct the insult at Obama which he explained to the leader.
“Even Ban Ki-moon weighed in”, Duterte was quoted as saying. But Mr Obama said he planned to do everything possible to persuade politicians to approve it this year.
“But”, he added, “I can tell you from the interactions I’ve had over the last eight or nine days with foreign leaders, that this is serious business”. “In our relations to the world, the Philippines will pursue an independent foreign policy”.
Obama earlier said he did not take Duterte’s comments personally and that these have no impact on the strong ties between the two allies.
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He said he told the leaders, “This is human rights, what do you intend to do?” and “Human rights violations whether committed by Moses or Abraham, is still violation of human rights”.
