“I think that it is a very significant move, and it will move us forward very quickly”.
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A summit of Southeast Asian leaders has opened, overshadowed by the Philippine leader’s intemperate comments aimed at President Barack Obama.
Obama became the first USA president to visit Laos when he arrived in the once-isolated country on Monday to attend two regional summits, half a century after America’s “secret war” left Laos with the unfortunate distinction of being the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in history. That prompted Washington to summon officials from the Philippine Embassy to complain.
But by Tuesday, he had done a complete U-turn in the tone of his statement.
But hours before his arrival, Duterte dropped a diplomatic bombshell by saying he doesn’t want Obama to ask him questions about extrajudicial killings that have occurred amid an ongoing crackdown on drug dealers in the Philippines.
Duterte often hurls abusive insults at critics and is waging a brutal war on crime in which almost 3,000 people have been killed since he took office on June 30. “Just give me vinegar and salt, and I will eat you”, the President told the gathering of the Filipino community at Feungfar Convention Center on Monday night. You must be respectful.
In a statement read out Tuesday by his spokesman, Duterte said his “strong comments” to certain questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress”. “Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum”, he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch”.
Duterte has previously cursed Pope Francis and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The White House said in a statement USA programmes in Laos had helped slash UXO casualties from 300 to less than 50 a year and the additional funding would be for a “comprehensive UXO survey of Laos and for continued clearing operations”.
Duterte has defended his campaign as a matter of national security, calling illegal drugs a pandemic that must be wiped out by the Philippines at any cost.
Making the first visit for a sitting US president, Obama said too few Americans know of the United States’ covert bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War.
Duterte has had a troublesome relation with the United States, questioning its inability to stop genocidal killings in the Middle East and Africa, and citing USA police shootings of black Americans that have set off protests.
The shoal is part of the larger dispute in the South China Sea between China and some ASEAN countries.
Duterte has taken a more conciliatory stance toward China than his predecessor. Duterte proclaimed early in his presidency that he would pursue a foreign policy not dependent on the United States. -Philippine relations blossomed, expressed disappointment over the aborted meeting with the U.S.
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“An invaluable occasion to have our leaders meet for the objective of discussing how to strengthen our comprehensive areas of cooperation would have been a golden opportunity”, del Rosario said.
