President Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican Donald Trump proves he isn’t qualified to be president “every time he speaks”, adding that he was confident Americans would ultimately reject the brash billionaire on Election Day. “I do not know for how long they saw each other”, said shortly after the press the Philippine foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay.
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Presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said the throbbing headache would have made it hard for Duterte to concentrate amid the overwhelming barrage of summitry.
The showdown was a fitting climax to a brutal few days of diplomacy that began with the famously acid-tongued Duterte branding Obama a “son of a whore”.
US President Barack Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos.
“I realize this raises tensions”, Obama said earlier as he met with ASEAN leaders, referring to a recent global arbitration ruling against China on the maritime dispute.
The two leaders interacted briefly on Wednesday night during a dinner for leaders gathered here in the Lao capital for a summit, but exchanged only “pleasantries”, according to a White House official. Do not just throw away questions and statements.
“When you say something harsh (to the US President), of course all eyes will be on you, but for me, what matters is for Asean to stay united and make a stand based on facts so that Asean will remain as a respected organisation”, he said. The basis for this relationship is historical and both leaders realize this.
The brief encounter came two days after Obama cancelled a meeting between them due to crude comments Duterte had directed at the U.S. president.
Among other things, the two leaders discussed energy cooperation and the Paris climate change pact, and reviewed the progress on Indo-US collaboration in nuclear energy, solar energy and innovation. It is the last of 10 trips Mr Obama paid as president to Asia, where Mr Obama lived as a youngster with his mother in Indonesia.
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He vowed in the campaign that so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them.
He was sworn into office in June after winning a landslide on pledges to combat the country’s drug crime issues, and told crowds on the day of his inauguration to “go ahead and kill [any drug addicts] yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful”.
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“We heard that he was not feeling well”, Jose said, when asked about the reason of the President’s absence.
