President Barack Obama exchanged
“pleasantries” with his Philippines counterpart on Wednesday following
an ugly outburst earlier this week that led to a cancellation of formal
talks between the two leaders.
A White House official said that Obama
had a “brief discussion” with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ahead
of a gala dinner in the Lao capital marking the beginning of the yearly
ASEAN summit.
The meeting took place in a holding
space for leaders, the official said, adding the “exchange consisted of
pleasantries between the two.”
Duterte was likely keen to clear the air
after publicly scoffing earlier this week at suggestions that Obama
would raise the issue of extrajudicial killings during their planned
meeting.
“Who does he think he is? I am no
American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not
answerable to anyone except the Filipino people,” he proclaimed before
traveling to Laos for the summit.
In his rant, Duterte also declared, “Son
of a bitch, I will swear at you,” though he later claimed that remark
was directed at a journalist and not at Obama.
The White House said the remarks weren’t constructive and prompted called off the meeting, which had been slated for Tuesday.
“I think it was our judgment that given
the focus and attention on President Duterte’s comments leading into the
meetings here we felt that didn’t create a constructive environment for
a bilateral meeting,” Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben
Rhodes said during a briefing in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday.
Rhodes insisted the US-Philippines alliance remained “rock solid.”
After the meeting was canceled, Duterte
expressed regret for his outburst, saying in a statement through his
spokesman that he regretted “it came across as a personal attack on the
US President.”
“We look forward to ironing out
differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions,” the
statement released on Tuesday read.