While speaking at the ASEAN Summit in Laos, Obama also said the us will not abandon its position on cooperation in various areas with the Philippines.
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Obama and Modi have focused on climate change in their past meetings, so it was likely they would discuss further it during the East Asia Summit.
On the day he was sworn into office, June 30, Duterte urged people living in a Manila slum to kill drug addicts in their community.
In what seemed like an effort to patch things up, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and US President Barack Obama shook hands and shared a good conversation before the gala dinner at the ASEAN Summit in Laos, a senator said Thursday.
Obama has endorsed Hillary Clinton and has said he plans to campaign full-force for the Democrat ahead of the November election.
This time he did not have to make any controversial statements against any leaders and all he did was to skip a few meetings including the fourth Asean-United States Summit.
Tensions stemming from a public outburst by Duterte before the summit overshadowed a gathering where Obama sought to focus on his military and economic rebalance to Asia and give reassurances on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which faces a hard ratification process in Congress.
Obama brushed off angry comments from Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, saying the bombastic leader has mouthed off before. Duterte has bristled at criticism from overseas of his war on drugs, in which more than 2,400 people have been killed since he became president two months ago.
Obama has made enhancing relationships with Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines a priority during his almost eight years in office. I was waiting for Obama to respond. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements, Son of a whore, I will curse you in the forum”, Duterte said.
“We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me”.
Concerns for human rights amid reports of police brutality sparked Duterte’s initial tirade against Obama – Duterte warned that, if Obama attempted to lecture him on human rights, “son of a whore, I will swear at you”.
Obama’s remarks came at the end of a grueling nine-day trip that took him to Laos and China following USA stops in Nevada, Hawaii and Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The photograph showed about 200 dead Filipino Moros stacked in a common pit, with an American soldier holding a rifle while stepping on the breasts of a naked Moro woman.
In Laos, he had then asked the heads of state, “can anyone here tell me what human rights is all about?”
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The delegate described the atmosphere in the room as “quiet and shocked”.
