The White House called off a scheduled meeting Tuesday with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippine a USA treaty ally after the brash new leader referred to Obama as a “son of a bitch”.
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Yep, now that both leaders are in Laos for the Asean Summit, their “personal” meeting is off.
Diplomats say strains with longtime ally the Philippines could compound Washington’s difficulties in forging a united front with Southeast Asian partners on the geostrategic jostle with Beijing over the South China Sea.
Duterte controversially declared open season on drug dealers and traffickers, telling people it’s okay to kill these people on sight.
The Philippines is a former USA colony.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defiantly reaffirmed his controversial campaign against drugs Tuesday and called for a redoubling of crime-fighting efforts across Southeast Asia, as he prepared to face two prominent critics of his policy: President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
He was incensed that the US president planned to raise concerns over extra-judicial killings under Duterte’s war against drugs.
The next day Duterte expressed regret in a semi-apology aimed at mending fences.
“Time will tell whether President Duterte steps back from this episode and realises he needs to recalibrate his choice of words in engaging United States leaders”, said Amy Searight, a former senior Pentagon official now at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
Asked about Duterte’s comments, United States secretary of defence Ash Carter said the defence relationship with the Philippines was a “strong” and “longstanding” one. He urged a full implementation of sanctions against North Korea, adding that the missile test demonstrated the threat that Pyongyang posed.
“For the people of Laos, war was also something that was not contained to a battlefield”, Obama said, delivering remarks at a service center for people who have prosthetic limbs.
Duterte said he would demand that Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the USA president in a discussion about the deaths.
“We must press on”, he declared in a speech at a business and investment conference on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which he is attending. He had been scheduled to meet Obama separately in Laos, but Obama indicated he had second thoughts, and the White House announced that the meeting had been canceled.
An average of 44 people are being killed each day in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on crime, according to police data released on Tue, Sep 6, that showed the death toll surging to almost 3,000.
Washington and Manila may also be on a collision course over human rights issues related to Duterte’s war on drugs.
Duterte has poured scorn on critics of his uncompromising campaign, usually larding it with curses.
He has accused a senator heading an inquiry into the killings of getting payoffs from drug lords. Philippine-China ties were strained under Duterte’s predecessors due to territorial conflicts in the South China Sea.
China rejects those accusations and accuses the United States of ratcheting up tensions unnecessarily.
Taking effect on January 1, 2010, the ASEAN-China FTA became the world’s third largest free trade area with a combined population of 1.9 billion and a combined GDP close to 6 trillion USA dollars. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.
The Philippines has been central in this effort due to an global court case it brought and won against Beijing.
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Earlier Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over his “son of a bitch” remark while referring to Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope.
