Days after slur, Obama, Rodrigo Duterte meet briefly at ASEAN Summit

Vientiane (Laos) Sep 8: It was brief and it was only pleasantries, but President Barack Obama and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines spoke to each other on Wednesday, just two days after Dutertes insulting remark prompted Obama to cancel their first meeting.

The two men spoke while they were waiting with other world leaders to enter a gala dinner at a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations here, according to a White House official.

The official did not say what the two men discussed, except to suggest that it was not substantive, the New York Times reported.

Obama cancelled a formal meeting with Duterte after the Philippine leader called him a "son of a w***e" and threatened to repeat it in person, if he raised the issue of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

Duterte later said he regretted the comments, which he described as an overreaction to news media reports he had read about Obama's plans to press him on his tactics for combating drug trafficking.

IANS