Key to meet controversial Philippines president

Rodrigo Duterte (Reuters)
Rodrigo Duterte (Reuters)

John Key will have a one-one-one meeting with controversial Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte - the man who called his US counterpart Barack Obama a "son of a whore".

The Prime Minister will meet the increasingly erratic Duterte at the East Asia Summit in Laos, on Thursday.

Duterte's "son of a whore" remark led to the US President cancelling their meeting at the forum.

The outburst followed criticism from the US against extrajudicial killings in the Philippines' bloody drug war, when he said: "son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum". 

Duterte has since expressed regret for the comment, but John Key will be bracing himself. 

Newshub.