U.S. President Joe Biden’s claim his uncle — an American World War II pilot — had been eaten by “cannibals” in Papua New Guinea after crashing on the Melanesia island chain was firmly rejected Sunday by Prime Minister James Marape.
Biden’s comments offended a key strategic ally as China moves to increase its influence and build alliances in the keenly contested region.
“President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said in a statement issued to the Associated Press.
Biden sparked the diplomatic furore when he spoke at a Pennsylvania war memorial last week about his Army Air Corps aviator uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan, who was aboard a plane brought down in an area then dominated by Japanese forces, as Breitbart News reported.
