Hillary Clinton on Tuesday strongly condemned Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's now-infamous "son of a b-" comment directed at President Obama, saying that the White House made the right call in canceling their meeting.
"They were the last persons to leave the holding room", Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said, insisting that the countries' relationship was "firm, very strong". I can't say how long they met. While this colonial legacy (and the bloody war that severed it) has done little to endear Americans to the Philippines, a close military relationship has developed over the years and the two nations have been close allies for years, something that has been reflected in recent agreements.
His popularity even soared in Japan, Takei said after his "son of a whore" quip that was mistaken to be a dig at US President Obama.
President Barack Obama linked US Olympic prowess to the country's racial and ethnic diversity Wednesday, as he urged young Southeast Asians to support inclusive societies.
Asked how the meeting with Duterte and Obama might go down, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told reporters: "It's hard to speculate, but certainly they will have their drinks and food together".
Duterte has emphasized that he was responding to a reporter's question over how he would explain to the USA the extrajudicial killings of more than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users in his home country.
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Early Wednesday, however, Duterte's press service announced that the Philippine president would meet both of these men for the first time at a dinner that evening - because he would be seated next to them.
In the past 25 years, the two sides have deepened political mutual trust, tightened economic cooperation, and achieved fruitful results in people-to-people exchanges, said Yang, who is the secretary-general of the ASEAN-China Center. "This was an offense against President Obama personally, but it was also an offense against the office of the Presidency of the United States", Nicholas Burns, the State Department's former third-highest official told CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday.
"You must be respectful", he continued, speaking directly to the reporter. "The relationship with the USA was seen as very significant".
Before leaving Manila on Monday, Mr Duterte reacted angrily to a reporter's question about how he would respond should Mr Obama confront him about the over 2,400 extrajudicial killings that have blighted his anti-crime push.
"Recently we all saw the Olympics and you know, not to brag but the United States did very well", he said.
