MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and United States President Barack Obama are expected to have a one-on-one meeting in Washington before the end of the year, US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney said Thursday.

Interviewed over dzME’s “Dos for Dos” program, Kenney said the meeting with the Philippine head of state usually happens in the first year of the term of a US president.

She denied that Obama was deliberately avoiding meeting Ms Arroyo as insinuated by critics here because of her low popularity rating among Filipinos.

Kenney said she had been getting the same question from people in the Philippines over and over again.

“She was the first Southeast Asian leader President Obama spoke to after his election. She was the first one he spoke to after his inaugural [address],” Kenney said.

“And I have to say that I would expect that before the end of the year the two of them would have a meeting. You know, it always happens in the first year of the US president. They always meet with the Philippine president. I don’t have the date and time but I expect that to happen before the end of the year,” she said.

Kenney said the meeting of these two leaders should put a “smile” on the faces of both Americans and Filipinos because regardless of the popularity issue, both peoples wanted their presidents to be talking.

She also said the United States was not disturbed by Ms Arroyo’s declining popularity rating.

Kenney said US-Philippine relations were anchored on many decades of friendship as shown by the presence of close to four million Filipinos in the United States.

“So our friendship goes way beyond just governments. Our relationship with governments is not based on how popular someone is,” she said.