The awkwardness continued days later when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called Obama a “son of a bitch” and warned Obama not to challenge him in their planned meeting in Laos.
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In a tirade before the Laos summit, Duterte insulted U.S. President Barack Obama and the White House responded by cancelling a two-way meeting.
“On that narrow issue, we do want to make sure the partnership we have is consistent with global norms and rule of law”.
Duterte made his foul-mouthed comments on September 5 in response to a reporter’s question on the possibility that Obama will raise the issue of drug-related killings.
Duterte made the comment as he veered away from his prepared speech before leaders of the 18-nation East Asia group, including Obama, on Friday, September 9, the last day of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and related Summits.
“We will pursue initiative and enhance cooperation with global partners to ensure ASEAN citizens live in peace, stability, security and growth”, he said.
Obama rejected the notion that he’d been slighted while in Asia or that leaders in the region were rejecting his leadership – a criticism leveled by Trump.
Trump has blasted Obama’s policy toward China as weak and said the president was humiliated by the Chinese during his visit to Asia this week.
Regarding reports that Obama would take him to task for his handling of drug trafficking, Duterte told reporters Monday that he does “not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody”.
Duterte is expected to participate in the summit’s closing ceremony, during which Laos will pass on the rotational presidency to the Philippines, which will be in charge during the completion of ASEAN’s 50th anniversary in 2017.
“I can’t say how long they met”, Yasay continued.
The brief meeting took a little sting out of the soured relations caused by Duterte’s intemperate language in referring to Obama earlier this week. “I’m very happy that it happened”.
“I did shake hands with President Duterte last night”.
“We want to stop all the drugs in the Philippines. Incidentally, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also seated on the other side of President Duterte”.
Instead, Duterte sat between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Duterte has said the Philippines is in danger of becoming a “narco state”, and eliminating drugs in society is the top priority of his administration.
Andanar told reporters Duterte had a migraine attack.
Duterte has been defiant toward global criticism of his anti-drug campaign, saying drugs are a pandemic and his crackdown a matter of national security.
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Duterte, who assumed the presidency in June, has had an uneasy relationship with the US, his country’s longtime treaty ally.
