Despite the lack of apology, the bomb victim said he hopes his nation and the United States can now move forward, and that Obama will press the Lao government to allow more freedom inside his country.
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VIENTIANE, Laos Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defiantly reaffirmed his controversial campaign against drugs Tuesday and called for a redoubling of crime-fighting efforts across Southeast Asia as he prepared to face two prominent critics of his policy: President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Duterte later voiced regret for his language.
“Clearly, he’s a colorful guy”, Obama said at a G20 press conference in China Monday, before reiterating that the Philippines is a close “friend and ally” of the United States. “It is not a vassal state of anybody so you have to be very careful”, he said.
Duterte reiterated that other countries should not interfere in Philippine affairs.
“Our primary intention is to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting ties with all nations, especially the USA with which we have had a longstanding partnership”, he said.
In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony”. The bombardment dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on the small nation, more than “we dropped on Germany and Japan, combined, in all of world war two”, Obama said.
Shortly before flying to Vientiane, Duterte warned he would not be lectured by Obama over a war on drug crime in the Philippines that has claimed almost 3,000 lives in just over two months – an average of 44 a day.
Former U.S. officials said China would be pleased by the U.S. -Philippines friction.
“We don’t meddle in your affairs”.
In a statement read out Tuesday by his spokesman, Duterte said his “strong comments” to certain questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress”.
Duterte likely had realized his folly by the time he arrived in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Monday night. He was answering a reporter’s question about how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings to Mr. Obama.
“If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you”, he said last month.
He referred to Mr Obama as a “son of a bitch” when asked by a reporter how he meant to explain extrajudicial killings to the United States president, adding that “we have long ceased to be a colony”. We’ll both just end up rolling in the mud.
The Air Force One comment refers to an incident at the G20 summit this weekend, when Obama had to exit his airplane from the back entrance instead of the traditional exit onto a red carpet-rumored to be an intentional diplomatic snub. “He’s the most powerful president of any country on the planet”. “If I’m having a meeting, it’s productive and we’re getting something done”.
The Duterte-Obama tiff is the second irritant to Philippines-US relations in the 10 weeks Duterte has been in power.
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In May, he called Pope Francis a “son of a whore” and called U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg a “gay son of a whore”.
