The snub was a spectacular setback for relations between the United States and Philippines, which are longtime allies and are bound by a mutual defence treaty to help each other in times of war.
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This came after Duterte, in a press conference Monday, warned Obama against bringing up the issue of alleged human rights violations in the country’s drug war during the summit.
“I’m inspired by you”, he told one survivor, Thoummy Silamphan, who uses a prosthetic after losing a hand to one of the bombs.
The India-Asean Summit on Thursday will be attended by leaders of 10 southeast Asian nations – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.
The official said the USA was eager to find an agreement quickly, mindful of the deteriorating conditions around the besieged city of Aleppo.
“There has been a lot of concern primarily because I don’t think there is a lot of understanding of the Philippine President or any way to predict what he is going to do”, said Rodger Baker, vice president of strategic analysis at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence company. “And we have long ceased to be a colony of the United States”, Duterte said, paraphrasing how he would address Obama.
The first US president to set foot in Laos while in office, Obama lamented that many Americans remain unaware of the “painful legacy” left behind.
The Philippines and US have shared over seven decades of diplomatic relations.
However, the U.S. president cancelled the meeting after the Philippine leader warned him and other leaders against questioning his bloody anti-drug campaign with the words “son of a whore”. The bombardment dropped more than 2 million tons of ordnance on the small nation, more than “we dropped on Germany and Japan, combined, in all of World War II”, Obama said.
Li made the remarks while meeting his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, on Tuesday on the sidelines of the East Asia leaders’ meetings in the Laotian capital of Vientiane.
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. “They too face the challenge of returning foreign fighters adding to already radicalized elements in their community”, he said.
Obama and Putin also discussed the conflict in Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the government, and the implementation of the agreement to stop the violence, the official said. After the war, 80 million unexploded bombs were left strewn across the country, which have so far killed or wounded 20,000 people.
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The U.S. has vowed to double spending on the cleanup operation to roughly $90 million over three years. He’s touting $90 million the USA will spend over three years to aid the cleanup effort.
