U.S. President Barack Obama scrapped a meeting with his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, in Laos after Duterte unleashed an expletive-laden warning against the U.S. interfering in a war on drugs that’s led to the deaths of thousands of suspects.
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“Historically, our relationship with the Philippines is one of the most important and my relationship with the Philippines people has been extraordinary warm and productive, so I expect that will continue, but I want to make sure that the setting is right, the timing is right for us to have the best conversation possible”.
More than 2,400 people have been killed since Duterte took office on June 30.
Rodrigo Duterte told reporters Barack Obama must be respectful. “Instead, he will meet with President Park of the Republic of Korea”, said Price in a statement. Obama called the Philippines a close “friend and ally” of the United States.
Earlier, the ABC News quoted President Obama saying, “If and when we have a meeting, this is something that’s going to be brought up”. His next stop was another one-party communist country with a dismal rights record: Laos, where mysterious disappearances have fueled concerns about a government crackdown. Instead, he worked to reassure the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the US would help bring to justice whoever was responsible for plotting the coup.
Obama also spent about 90 minutes Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, another leader whose fate seems intertwined with Obama’s in all the wrong ways.
He also expects the USA will provide help to Laos in dealing with unexploded munitions that remain in the Laotian countryside from the war. Obama said he has no doubt that the San Francisco 49ers player is honest and “cares about some real, legitimate issues”. “But typically the tone of our meetings is candid, blunt, businesslike”. “I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people”, Mr Duterte said, adding: “Son of a b****, I will swear at you”.
The unusually open tensions threaten to overshadow the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and East Asia Summits in Laos from Tuesday to Thursday.
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The Philippines leader is notorious for his inflammatory comments. That is the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bi*ch” or “son of a wh*re”. He applied the same moniker to an Australian missionary who was gang raped and killed, and even to Pope Francis, even though the Philippines is a heavily Catholic nation. He’s said the battle doesn’t amount to genocide but has vowed to go to jail if needed to defend police and military members carrying out his orders.
