PM Modi’s post also underscored the importance of ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
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The Philippines is one of the main allies of the United States in the Pacific, where Obama has re-oriented the U.S. foreign policy to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
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.
Duterte had stressed that the United Nations should not intervene in his drug war and should focus on other disturbing issues in other countries.
Obama then chose to cancel a one-on-one meeting with Duterte.
Duterte said Obama should not question him about extrajudicial killings, or, as he put it, “son of a bitch, I will swear at you” when they meet in Laos. He now “regrets” that calling Obama “son of a whore” caused so much controversy.
Obama said he had heard about the comment and instructed his aides to determine whether it would still be productive to hold the face-to-face meeting.
“All of the attention frankly was on those comments, and therefore not on the very substantive agenda that we have with the Philippines”, he told reporters.
“The more optimistic read would be, it’s still early days, this is a president who is just over two months into his presidency”, said Parameswaran.
In a statement read out by his spokesman, Duterte said his “strong comments” to certain questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress; we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the USA president”. He urged a full implementation of sanctions against North Korea, adding that the missile test demonstrated the threat that Pyongyang posed. “Frankly (that) did not strike us as the most constructive way to conduct a bilateral meeting”. He said Washington needed to maintain a sense of urgency within the worldwide community on sanctions against Pyongyang.
Though Duterte’s quick retreat after the White House reprimand showed that the USA still can call shots in the relationship, it gave Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence an opportunity to attack Obama for squandering U.S. “credibility” in the world.
As a first sign of the new relationship, the Obama administration announced Tuesday it was committed $90 million over the three years to clearing the unexploded ordnance. During the President’s first bilateral meeting with PM Lee, the two leaders discussed the illegal drug trade and its nefarious effects.
“Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal”, Obama said, as he addressed an audience of more than 1,000 students, business people and officials.
Duterte has poured scorn on critics of his uncompromising campaign, usually larding it with curses.
In the few months since the election campaign and more than two months into the presidency, Duterte has cursed the pope, the United Nations secretary-general and gotten into verbal tussles with the revered Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.
He has accused a senator heading an inquiry into the killings of getting payoffs from drug lords.
China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually.
India and Asean have 30 dialogue mechanisms which meet regularly, including a Summit and seven Ministerial meetings in Foreign Affairs, Commerce, Tourism, Agriculture, Environment, Renewable Energy and Telecommunications. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.
Philippine-China ties were strained under Duterte’s predecessors due to territorial conflicts in the South China Sea.
Duterte said last month he expected all ASEAN members to support the arbitration court’s ruling, but that the Philippines would not raise the issue in Laos. The Philippines has shifted the focus back to internal governance.
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Still, Duterte has promised to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths and insisted human rights can not get in the way of his war.
