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10A Friday, June 28, 2019
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WORLD
Trump pushes allies on trade before meeting Putin
CARL COURT I Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, jokes to the media about
fist bumping Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center,
and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a trilateral
meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka,
western Japan, Friday, June 28.
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
AND ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
OSAKA, Japan — With an
eye on the race back home
to challenge him, President
Donald Trump opened his
most consequential trip of
the year Friday by pushing
allies on trade and defense
spending at an international
summit.
Trump opened the G20
summit in Japan by meet
ing with host Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
followed by Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel. He sounded optimis
tic about inking trade deals
with all three.
With an array of world
issues on the agenda, Trump
could not resist weighing in
on events at home: As he
held meetings with these
world leaders, 10 Democrats
stood on a stage in Miami as
part of the first debates of
the 2020 presidential race.
“I just passed a televi
sion set on the way here. I
saw that health care and
maximum health care was
given to 100% of the illegal
immigrants coming into
our country by the Demo
crats,” Trump said, turning
to Merkel. “I don’t know if
you saw it, it wasn’t very
exciting, I can tell you... So
I look forward to spending
time with you rather than
watching.”
Trump was also set to
meet with Russian President
Vladimir Putin on Friday,
their first sit-down since the
special counsel found exten
sive evidence of Russian
meddling in the 2016 U.S.
election.
The president, who in the
past has disrupted carefully
choreographed summits by
attacking allies and adver
saries alike, made no public
mention of his recent com
plaints that the U.S. military
alliance with Japan is one
sided, that Germany was
taking advantage of the U.S.
on support for NATO and
that India’s tariffs on the
U.S. “must be withdrawn!”
Abe and Trump discussed
trade and North Korea,
while the three leaders
spoke about enhanced secu
rity cooperation in the South
China Sea and Huawei, the
Chinese telecommunica
tions giant that Trump has
put on a blacklist and is
viewed as a national secu
rity threat because of the
possibility that its equip
ment could be used for
cyber espionage.
And earlier, as Abe offi
cially received Trump, the
president waved over his
daughter Ivanka Trump and
son-in-law Jared Kushner,
both senior White House
aides, to pose with him for
the official welcome photo.
Trump and Abe were later
joined by Modi, who a day
earlier was the target of
a Trump tweet complain
ing about tariffs. The por
tion of the meeting open to
reporters was convivial: at
Trump’s urging, the three
leaders engaged in a group
fist bump.
But the day’s main event
will be Trump’s first public
meeting with Putin since the
Helsinki summit last July
in which Trump refused to
side with U.S. intelligence
agencies over his Russian
counterpart.
Trump said in advance
that he expected a “very
good conversation” with
Putin but told reporters that
“what I say to him is none
of your business.” His aides
have grown worried that
Trump could use the meet
ing to once again attack spe
cial counsel Robert Mueller’s
probe on the world stage,
particularly since Mueller
recently agreed to testify
before Congress next month.
Senate Democratic leader
Chuck Schumer pressed the
president to directly chal
lenge the Russian leader on
election interference and
send a signal “not merely to
Putin but to all of our adver
saries that interfering with
our election is unaccept
able, and that they will pay a
price — a strong price — for
trying.”
The United States and
Russia are also on oppos
ing sides of the escalating
crisis with Iran, which shot
down an American drone
last week. Trump nixed
a possible retaliatory air
strike and stressed Friday
that the “there’s no rush.
There’s absolutely no time
pressure” to ease the tension
with Tehran.
Trump’s meeting with
Putin will be the leaders’
first extended conversa
tion since the two met in
Finland, nearly a year ago.
That’s when Trump set off
an uproar by declining to say
he believed the U.S. intelli
gence services’ conclusions
over Putin’s denials of elec
tion interference.
N. Korea urges S. Korea to end
mediation between North, US
Associated Press
SEOUL — North Korea said Thursday
South Korea must stop trying to mediate
between Pyongyang and Washington, as it
stepped up pressure on the U.S. to work out
new proposals to salvage nuclear diplomacy.
The North Korean statement was an
apparent continuation of its displeasure with
Seoul and Washington over the stalled diplo
macy. But there are no signs North Korea
would formally abandon talks anytime soon
as an inter-Korean liaison office in North
Korean remains operating and the North still
talks about good relations between its leader,
Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump.
The statement came two days before
Trump visits South Korea for two days.
There have been no public meetings
between the United States and North Korea
since the breakdown of the second summit
between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in Feb
ruary. Kim returned home empty-handed
after Trump refused to provide him with
badly needed sanctions relief in return for a
limited denuclearization step.
The summit’s collapse was a blow to South
Korean President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who
shuttled between Washington and Pyong
yang to facilitate talks between the countries
to help find a diplomatic settlement of the
North Korean nuclear crisis.
Talk of a revival of diplomacy, however,
has flared after Trump and Kim recently
exchanged personal letters. Moon said ear
lier this week that U.S. and North Korean
officials were holding “behind-the-scene
talks” to try to set up a third summit between
Trump and Kim. Moon also said talks
between the two Koreas have been under
way through unspecified “various channels.”
On Thursday, Kwon Jong Gun, chief of the
North Korean Foreign Ministry’s U.S. affairs
department, said it will “never go through”
South Korea again when it deals with the
United States. He also dismissed the com
ments by Moon and other South Korean offi
cials that there are various exchanges and
unofficial talks between the two Koreas.
“It’s better for the South Korean authori
ties to mind their own business at home,”
Kwon said.
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