Obama flew in from Hangzhou, China, where he attended the Group of 20 economic summit.
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“Clearly, he’s a colorful guy, ” Obama said.
Trade volume between the two sides reached 209 billion USA dollars in the first half of 2016.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States rained bombs on Laotian villages and the countryside as America’s war with Vietnam spilled across the border.
“The U.S. strategic interest in Laos is to see the country be able to exert a certain degree of strategic autonomy because you don’t want (to) have something akin to the relationship between China and Cambodia”, Phuong Nguyen, analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Reuters news agency. Critics argue the deal will eliminate jobs in the U.S. “We have, with this [Obama] visit, an opportunity to signal to the world our friendship and interest in an invigorated way ahead for our two countries”.
Mr Obama’s National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said later that Mr Obama’s meeting with Mr Duterte, set for Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of the summitry, was off.
Obama will be meeting the leaders of the Association of Southern Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a summit aimed at strengthening the U.S. – ASEAN strategic partnership.
Almost 50 documents will be signed, adopted and acknowledged at those meetings, while Laos as ASEAN Chair will issue a number of Chairman Statements. Taking into account that this will be the first Asean Summit after the Summit in Kuala Lumpur, and given the importance of realising Vision 2025, the agenda of the plenary session is mainly to discuss the progress of the implementation of Asean 2025: “Forging Ahead Together or also known as Asean Vision 2025, a roadmap for the region’s continuous community building efforts”, he said.
A total of 11 official meetings are scheduled to take place from September 6 to 9, including the 28th & 29th ASEAN Summits; the 19th ASEAN+3 Summit; the fourth East Asia Summit (EAS); seven ASEAN+1 summits with seven partners – namely China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US, India, Australia and the United Nations; and the 8th Mekong – Japan Summit Meeting. The White House said he will encourage Laos’ slow political opening and budding entrepreneurial culture. Mr. Obama is “certainly not going to pull any punches in raising well-documented and relevant” concerns in his meeting with Mr. Duterte, Mr.
Pointing to a steady increase in trade and investment between South Korea and ASEAN, Park highlighted the need for greater trade liberalization between the two sides to increase the benefits of open, free trade.
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“It is predicted that approximately 400 million people will form the middle class in this region by 2020, as a result of economic growth averaging more than 5 percent per annum”, the president pointed out.
