President Donald Trump, who has been keeping up a frenetic work schedule right from his inauguration on January 20, was bracing for back-to-back telephone conversations with as many as five global leaders on Saturday, including what was slated to be a closely-watched powwow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We’re looking to have a great relationship with all countries,” Trump said at a White House news conference. “If we can have a great relationship with Russia and China and all countries, I’m all for that,” he said.
“I hope we have a fantastic relationship. That’s possible, and it’s also possible that we won’t. We will see what happens,” Trump commented, noting, “How the relationship works out, I won’t be able to tell you that (until) later. I’ve had many times where I thought I’d get along with people and I don’t like them at all.”
Dismissing the speculation about he lifting soon the US sanctions on Russia, Trump said it was “too early” to start discussing the sanctions issue. The Obama administration had imposed the sanctions over Russian activities in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. In his final days as President, Barack Obama had also expelled 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump’s diplomatic overdrive over the weekend comes just a day after his meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, in what was his first face-to-face engagement with a foreign leader as the US President. Both sides reaffirmed their “special relationship”. May made it a point to point out that Trump had confirmed that he was 100 per cent behind NATO – in sharp contrast to his earlier comments on the subject, including a remark that NATO was “obsolete”.
Prior to the meeting with May, Trump also had an hour-long telephone talk with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto — a day after a very undiplomatic spat that led to the cancellation of their meeting scheduled for next week.
“We (US and Mexico) are going to be working on a fair relationship and a new relationship,” Trump said on Saturday in a marked change of tone. The two countries put out almost identical written statements after the phone call, except for a key difference. While Mexico said the two presidents have agreed not to discuss the controversial wall financing issue publicly, the US had a slightly different tack.
Said a statement from the White House: “With respect to payment for the border wall, both presidents recognize their clear and very public differences of positions on this issue but have agreed to work these differences out as part of a comprehensive discussion on all aspects of the bilateral relationship. Both presidents have instructed their teams to continue the dialogue to strengthen this important strategic and economic relationship in a constructive way.”
Fielding a question on Mexico at his joint news conference with the British Prime Minister, Trump said he had “a nice phone call” with Pena Nieto.
Nonetheless, he went on to say that Mexico over the years has “beat us to a pulp”, with the US running up a trade deficit of $60 billion. “We’ll be negotiating and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.