President Obama met with Laotian President Vorachit on the first visit to the Southeast Asian country by a sitting American president.
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Obama says Asia-Pacific is home to more than half the world’s population and will become even more important in the century ahead.
“Nobody has a right to lecture me”, Duterte said.
Later on Tuesday, Duterte issued a statement, expressing regret for his undiplomatic remarks.
But by Tuesday, he had done a complete U-turn in the tone of his statement.
The South China Sea issue is expected to once again be discussed at the three days of meetings hosted by Asean, which will be attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
“He also thanks President Obama for his firm support for the Philippines during the G20, where President Obama emphasized the importance for China to abide by its obligation under global law and underscore the United States’ unwavering commitment to the security of this treaty island”.
The acid-tongued Duterte bristled at warnings he would face questioning by the USA president over a crime war in the Philippines that has claimed more than 2 400lives in just over two months.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama, the first sitting United States president to visit the South East Asian nation, announced a further $90m (£67m) to help those maimed or injured by the unexploded ordnance and to pay for further clear-up efforts.
Elected in May on an anti-crime platform, Duterte has lashed out at the United States and others for criticising his war on drugs, in which more than 2,400 people have been killed by police and vigilante militia.
Duterte replied he is not beholden to anybody and he is answerable to the Filipino people. “My country may be small, hardly keeping up with its economic problems, but I will not allow myself or the Filipinos to be insulted”. You must be respectful.
Do not just throw away questions and statements.
Previously, he branded US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg as a “son of a whore”, a term he commonly uses, and criticized the US over its own track record of police killings against African Americans.
Duterte has had a troubled relation with the United States, criticizing its inability to stop violence in the Middle East and Africa, and citing USA police shootings of black Americans.
“It’s more than we were expecting”, added Simon Rea, Laos country director for Mines Advisory Group, an aid group which receives the majority of its funding for mine and bomb clearance operations in Laos from the U.S.
He sought to address worries that United States’ new focus on Asia will leave smaller nations as pawns in a chess match between the US and China.
The proposed meeting, now cancelled, would have been the first since Duterte came into office on June 30.
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“I always want to make sure if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done”, he told reporters.
