Obama also was scheduled to meet with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte today, but canceled that meeting after Duterte made a slur against Obama.
Advertisement
“We shall not be cowed”. The Republic is also one of the top investors in the Philippines. More than 2,000 people have been killed since June 30, when he took office after winning the election on a promise to fight crime and corruption.
Obama is due to meet Vorachit today.
Calling Duterte “a colourful guy”, the U.S. president said he has asked his staff to find out whether a meeting would be useful.
“Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum”, Duterte told a news conference shortly before flying to Laos to attend a summit. The Philippines government released two statements on the matter expressing regret. The Philippine Supreme Court approved the return of us troops in January.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived late Tuesday in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, setting in motion his first official visit to the country, where he will also attend the East Asia Summit.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, “I do not want to quarrel with the most powerful country on the planet”, but immediately returned to his typical combative approach, saying: “Washington has been so liberal about criticizing human rights (abuses), human rights and human rights”. Time will come when I will eat you in front of the people. Rhodes explained that the White House canceled the meeting because “all we were going to discuss were a series of comments”.
Duterte is not particularly interested in talking about human rights – he has said as much. A statement released by the president’s office claimed that the insult was, in fact, aimed at the journalist rather than the USA president.
But by Tuesday, he had done a complete U-turn in the tone of his statement.
Duterte said both sides mutually agreed to postpone the meeting.
“I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony”, Duterte replied.
“You must be respectful”, Duterte said of Obama. Do not just throw questions.
This is not the first time that Duterte has received criticism for his language, having cursed both the Pope and UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon in the past.
It also soured Obama’s last swing as president through a region he has tried to make a focus of USA foreign policy, a strategy widely seen as a response to China’s economic and military muscle-flexing.
The president, affectionately known to many Filipinos as “Rody”, also noted that 600,000 Muslim Filipinos, or Moros, were killed by US military personnel during the pacification campaign that took place prior to the USA withdrawal from the island.
He has openly questioned whether the US would come to the Philippines’ aid in the event of armed conflict with China over maritime territorial disputes.
President Rodrigo Duterte hadn’t even taken off for his first official trip overseas, and he was already landing on the controversial headlines of foreign news organizations.
The Philippines is a former USA colony.
While tensions are likely to dissipate, this spat has brought a number of changes in the U.S. -Philippines relationship into the spotlight.
Advertisement
“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.
