In his debut on the global stage and just days before he was due to meet President Barack Obama at a regional summit in Laos, Duterte made offensive comments aimed at the US leader that prompted Washington to cancel the meeting.
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The two leaders interacted briefly on Wednesday night during a dinner for leaders gathered here in the Lao capital for a summit, but exchanged only “pleasantries”, according to a White House official.
But on Thursday morning, Duterte was absent from meetings that Southeast Asian leaders held with Obama and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
President Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican Donald Trump confirms his belief that Trump isn’t qualified to be president “every time he speaks”, adding that he was confident Americans would ultimately reject the brash billionaire on Election Day.
Tensions stemming from a public outburst by Duterte before the summit overshadowed a gathering where Obama sought to focus on his military and economic rebalance to Asia and give reassurances on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which faces a hard ratification process in Congress. Mr Duterte had his outburst on Monday when he was defending his war on drugs that has killed at least 2,400 Filipinos.
“Because the consequences of when you do it the wrong way are innocent people get hurt and you have a bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem”, Obama said.
“They met at the holding room and they were the last persons to leave the holding room”. You must be respectful. The White House, however, cancelled the talks after Duterte’s profanity-laced rant after being asked about the possibility of discussing human rights concerns with Obama.
In his rant, Duterte also declared, “Son of a bitch, I will swear at you”, though he later claimed that remark was directed at a journalist and not at Obama.
Duterte swept to power in May on promises to wipe out crime and corruption within six months, pledging to wage a war on drug dealers and crush widespread addiction in a country of 100 million.
On a visit to Indonesia, Duterte told the Filipino community there that he told Obama: “President Obama, I’m President Duterte”.
The US is the Philippines’ largest trading partner after China, and a key source of foreign direct investment.
He says the US was on the “right side of history” during the Cold War.
“When I think back to the time I spent here as a boy, I can’t help but be struck by the extraordinary progress that’s been made by the region in the decades since, even if there’s still a lot of work to be done”, Mr Obama said.
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“Mr Duterte has not given any signals that he sees abandoning or substantially weakening the alliance with the United States as a way to reach a better deal with China, nor should he”, Amy Searight, director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, told the AP.
