Plan B Forum

US President Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had earlier called him a "son of a whore".


Mr Obama had said he would raise the issue of drug-related extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

But Mr Duterte, who has sanctioned the killing of drug dealers, said if that happened: "Putang ina (son of a whore) I will swear at you in that forum."

Aides say Mr Obama will now meet South Korea's president instead.

US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price told reporters the US president would hold talks with Park Geun-hye at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Laos, where leaders are gathering for a regional summit.

But speaking in Manila on Monday before he left for Laos, Mr Duterte bristled at the suggestion, saying it was "rude" and cursing the US president. He added that: "We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me."

He then referred to the anti-drugs campaign that has led to the killing of 2,400 suspected drug dealers and users in the Philippines since he took office in June.

"The campaign against drugs will continue. Many will die, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets....until the [last] drug manufacturer is killed we will continue."

Mr Obama initially appeared to play down the insult saying that he had asked his aides to work out if this is "a time where we can have some constructive, productive conversations".

His aides later cancelled the talks.

Obama Plays Down Confrontation With China Over His Plane’s Stairs



HANGZHOU, China — When Air Force One taxied to a stop in eastern China on Saturday afternoon, American and Chinese officials had already engaged in a lengthy, heated dispute over the most mundane of issues: How would the president depart his plane?

China’s handling of President Obama’s arrival for the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hangzhou has created a narrative that the Chinese snubbed the American president. Some Beijing-controlled news outlets are pushing back, fanning nationalist anger by accusing the Americans of arrogance in the squabble.

The reality, American officials and diplomats familiar with China say, is both simpler and more complicated.

The United States military had flown in a set of rolling air stairs, as it does on all of Mr. Obama’s foreign trips, and the White House had received Chinese approval to use the equipment. But before Mr. Obama’s arrival, a senior administration official said, the Chinese suddenly reversed themselves.

The Americans were willing to use a Chinese stairway, this official said, but the Chinese insisted that the stairs be taken to the plane by a local driver, who the Americans said could not communicate with the White House team about even the simplest tasks. So the White House demanded that he be replaced with an English-speaking driver, a request the Chinese refused.

As Air Force One was landing, the Chinese relented and told the Americans they could use their own stairs. But by then, officials said, there was no time to make a switch.

So the White House decided to forgo the main doorway in favor of a smaller exit in the belly of the aircraft equipped with its own foldout stairs. Mr. Obama generally uses that door only when Air Force One arrives in places, like Afghanistan, with high security concerns.

The decision deprived the president of the grand display of descending the stairs from the main doorway to a red carpet. (The carpet was there, but easy to miss, as was Mr. Obama, who popped out as if he were getting off a commuter flight at a municipal airport.)

The president walked into a chaotic scene, with Chinese security officials roping off members of the White House press corps to prevent them from recording his arrival. Even the national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, was hassled by security officials.

At that point, a Chinese official said in a raised voice to a White House official: “This is our country, this is our airport.”

The official’s fury, caught on a cellphone and widely circulated, won glowing approval on one of China’s most powerful government social media sites.