Barack Obama cancels meet with Philippines President over abusive remark

US President Barack Obama and his Philippines counterpart Rodrigo Duterte will not meet in Laos on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit, the US Embassy here confirmed on Tuesday

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo/AFP

Vientiane: US President Barack Obama and his Philippines counterpart Rodrigo Duterte will not meet in Laos on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit, the US Embassy here confirmed on Tuesday.

According to a media report, plans for a bilateral meeting were shelved after Duterte tore into Obama with an obscenity on Monday, and later the White House cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Philippine President, Xinhua news agency reported.

"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," Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte scoffed in a speech on Monday. "Son of a b****, I will swear at you."

US President Barack Obama. Photo/AFP

"I always want to make sure that if I'm having a meeting...it is actually productive and we're getting something done," Obama was quoted as saying before his departure for Laos.

The proposed meeting, now cancelled, would have been the first since Duterte came into office on June 30. Obama arrived in Vientiane on Monday evening after participating in the G20 Summit in China's city of Hangzhou.

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