AUCKLAND CITY MARKS CHINA ANNIVERSARY
Washington: President Donald Trump has welcomed Australian PM Scott Morrison on a week-long visit to the U.S. which includes a state dinner at the White House. The pair met at the White House where Mr Morrison was greeted with a military band and a 19-gun salute.
The two are close politically and have lavished praise on one another.
Mr Morrison is just the second world leader to be given a state dinner by President Trump after France’s Emmanuel Macron. Mr Morrison and Mr Trump both heralded the decades-long relationship between their two countries as the Australian PM arrived at the White House. “Australians and Americans understand each other like few other people,” Mr Morrison said. “We have done what true friends do: stick by each other.”
What’s their relationship like?
The two conservative politicians spent time together at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in June as well as earlier that month at the at DDay event in Portsmouth, England, leading some to speculate about a budding “bromance”. During a dinner with Mr Morrison in Osaka, Mr Trump praised his counterpart, and boasted that he had predicted his victory at the ballot box.
“He didn’t surprise me but he surprised a lot of other people. See, I knew him. So I said he’s going to do very well and he did,” Mr Trump told U.S. and Australian officials. Mr Trump has frequently lavished praise on Mr Morrison - who became Prime Minister in August 2018 and won a surprise re-election in May - as well as his controversial immigration positions.
The two are close politically and have lavished praise on one another.