They are scheduled to meet during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos this week.
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Obama’s aides announced before dawn on Tuesday that his planned meeting later in the day with Duterte had been called off.
The White House had earlier said Obama would not pull any punches on his concerns about human rights abuses in the Philippines, its treaty ally, when meeting Duterte.
Duterte has previously also branded the USA ambassador to Manila a “son of a whore” – a term the acid-tongued former prosecutor commonly uses – and criticised the United States over its own track record of police killings. That prompted Washington to summon officials from the Philippine Embassy to complain.
He also expects the USA will provide help to Laos in dealing with unexploded munitions that remain in the Laotian countryside from the war.
Lacson expressed hope, however that Duterte would soon realize that “diplomacy is always part and parcel of a country’s foreign policy and being the country’s leader, he shapes that policy”.
I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people.
“Nobody has a right to lecture me”, Duterte said. “So. people who live in glass houses should not” throw stones at others.
According to Reuters, the meeting between the USA and Philippine leaders was officially canceled per an announcement a White House spokesperson on Tuesday. “There’s a protocol for that”, Duterte said. “Presidents come after elections and go after their terms while alliances between countries remain especially between the USA and the Philippines”.
But by Tuesday, he had done a complete U-turn in the tone of his statement.
“We look forward to ironing out difference arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries”, he added.
Mr Duterte has been under intense global scrutiny over the more than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users killed since he took office. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody.
“You don’t just slap the face of the most powerful country in the world and expect to get away with it”.
“You must be respectful”, Mr Duterte said of Mr Obama.
Duterte has previously cursed Pope Francis and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“Who is he to confront me?”
He pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a US pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as “the reason why (the south) continues to boil” with separatist insurgencies.
Last week, Duterte said he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked concern from the US and other countries.
“President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon”, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.
The freakish rift with Duterte was the most glaring example of how Obama has frequently found himself bound to foreign countries and leaders whose ties to the USA are critical even if their values sharply diverge.
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Nevertheless, the South China Sea issue is expected to once again be discussed at the three days of meetings hosted by ASEAN.
