HANGZHOU: US President Barack Obama said on Monday he was considering whether or not to meet his Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, this week, amid alarm over the latter’s campaign against illegal drugs in which thousands of people have died.

Speaking at a G20 meeting in China, and before travelling to Laos for a summit where he was due to hold talks with Duterte, Obama said he had asked his team to find out if “constructive, productive conversations” were possible.

“Obviously the Filipino people are some of our closest friends and allies and the Philippines is a treaty ally of ours. But I always want to make sure that if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done,” he told reporters in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

“I’m going to make an assessment ... What is certainly true is that the issues of how we approach fighting crime and drug trafficking is a serious one for all of us, and we’ve got to do it the right way.”

Published in Dawn September 6th, 2016