Obama cancels meeting with Philippine counterpart

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday cancelled a scheduled meeting with his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, in Laos, after Duterte unleashed an expletive-laden warning against the U.S. interfering in his country’s war on drugs.

 

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Obama would not go through with a scheduled bilateral meeting with Duterte on Tuesday at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos. Instead, he’ll will meet with South Korean President Park Geun Hye, Price said in a statement.

 

Price’s statement did not give a reason for the scheduling change, but Duterte earlier on Monday rejected U.S. criticism of the methods he is using in his anti-drug campaign, saying it was an internal Philippine matter. He then added that if the U.S. president questioned him during their meeting, “I will curse you in that forum.”

 

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