No Obama-Duterte bilateral meeting in Laos: US

Vientiane, Sep 6 (IANS) 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.

"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.