The two leaders discussed further strengthening and diversification of trade and investment ties.
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“Here in Laos, here at COPE, we see the victims of bombs that were dropped because of decisions made half a century ago and we are reminded that wars always carry tremendous costs, many of them unintended”, he said. He’s touting $90 million the US will spend over three years to aid the cleanup effort. Duterte and Obama mutually agreed to move their scheduled bilateral meeting to a later date.
Jose expressed confidence US-Philippines bilateral ties will remain unaffected by the diplomatic row.
“For the last four decades, the people of Laos have lived under the shadow of war”. In that exchange, he warned Obama to “not just throw questions” at him during their meeting, and reminded the American president “we have long ceased to be a colony”. Mr Obama sought to put a human face on the issue by meeting survivors of bombs America dropped.
Laos became the world’s most-bombed country per capita from 1964 to 1973 as Washington launched a secret CIA-led war to cut supplies they believed were flowing to communist fighters during the war on Vietnam.
On this first visit by a sitting American president, Mr Obama has placed a particular emphasis on trying to heal wounds inflicted by the war the U.S. waged here as part of the Vietnam War.
The US State Department and Hillary Clinton have called for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to show some respect in his dealings with Barack Obama after he referred to the US president as a “son of a b***h”.
The Philippines is one of the main allies of the United States in the Pacific, where Obama has re-oriented the United States foreign policy to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
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“Time will tell whether President Duterte steps back from this episode and realizes he needs to recalibrate his choice of words in engaging USA leaders”, said Amy Searight, a former senior Pentagon official now at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. The latter stands for ASEAN’s respective cooperation mechanism with China, Japan and South Korea. Obama vowed to work with the United Nations to tighten sanctions against Pyongyang, but said the door wasn’t closed to a more functional relationship.
