Working with countries like India a good thing: Donald Trump

Washington, January 11

Working with countries like India, Russia and China is a good and not bad thing, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

He was responding to criticism of his desire to improve relationship with Moscow.

“Working with countries, whether it’s Russia or China or India, or any of the countries that surround this world and encompass this world, is a very good thing. That’s not a bad thing,” he told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Prime Minister, Norway, Erna Solberg.

Trump said he was for strongest military, massive oil and gas and a lot of energy. “Putin (Russian President Vladimir Putin) can’t love that,” he added.

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Trump said it was “very much better” having to do with North Korea where the US currently had a problem.

“That should have never been my problem. It should have been a problem solved many years ago when it was much less dangerous. But it was given to him, along with a big mess of other things,” he noted.

He blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his presidential rival in the 2016 elections, saying she “was not for a strong military”.

“Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that don’t have the same capacities at this moment certainly,” he said.

Trump said it was a “lot better” to work with other countries.

“We’re working with China on North Korea. We’re working with various other countries, and I think we’re doing very well. We had a great talk, as you know and as you reported.

“We had a great talk this morning with President Moon (of South Korea), and I think that a lot of good things are happening. We’re going to see what happens,” the US President said.

Solberg said Norway had a “very good” relationship with Russia.

“As a neighbouring country we do day-to-day work on things that we have to solve for the people and the economic activity that is in that area, which is a fragile area for the whole world,” she said.

Norway shares border with Russia.

Responding to a question on allegations of Russian interference in elections in European countries, Solberg said her government had found no such evidence in Norway.

“I think that it’s up to every political system and countries to scrutinise and discuss their own political agenda in their countries. And I respect that very much and that this is an issue for American politics,” she said. PTI