After their initial, informal meeting at the ASEAN Summit gala dinner, Obama, Duterte and Ban are expected to meet again today.
President Rodrigo Duterte had his “meet and greet” moment with two of the world leaders whom he had cancelled meetings with at the 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum Summit in Laos.
Before leaving for the summit, Duterte has already refused to meet with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the sidelines of the ASEAN forum meeting.
On his pre-departure press conference on Monday, Duterte has slammed United States President Barack Obama which prompted the latter to cancel their supposed-to-be first bilateral meeting.
On Wednesday night, Duterte was taunted by time as he was reportedly sandwiched in between Obama and Ban.
But no, their first meeting was not at the gala dinner table but rather inside the holding room of the National Convention Center (NCC) before the dinner of the ASEAN leaders and dialogue partners.
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Senator Alan Cayetano confirmed that the “meet and greet” lasted for several minutes but the senator refused to give details on the topic of the two presidents’ first meeting.
However, according to Cayetano, the informal talk between Obama and Duterte was “warm and cordial”.
Communications Sec. Martin Andanar said Duterte and Obama are expected to meet again during the ASEAN-US Summit and the possibility of a conversation between the two leaders.
Andanar also said that there is a big possibility that Duterte and Obama are going to sit next to each other, along with UN Sec. Gen. Ban, during the ASEAN chairmanship turnover.
What is important, according to Andanar, is that Duterte and Obama had a friendly encounter the previous night.
The Malacañan Palace is hoping that the differences between Duterte and Obama will be ironed-out in the course of the summit and even after the international event.