Trump tells off North Korea in tweet
institutions”, amid fears in Europe that he could scale back US military support for Nato. But he insisted that allies “must pay what they owe”.
Trump said: “I reiterated to Chancellor Merkel my strong support for Nato as well as the need for our Nato allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defence.”
Merkel responded by saying that Germany needed to meet Nato spending goals.
The two agreed on the need for cooperating in the fight against Islamic State terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Libya and support the peace process in Ukraine.
Merkel emphasised the importance of improving relations with Russia, and Trump was thought to have sought ideas from her on how to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. She also delivered a defence of globalisation, and said she hoped the US and the EU could resume discussions on a trade agreement.
Trump rejected accusations that his “America First” agenda was isolationist, and said he was only trying to improve trade deals to protect US interests, rather than pull back from the world entirely.
A reporter’s question about his supposed isolationism angered Trump. He shot back: “I don’t know what newspaper you’re reading, but I guess that would be an example of fake news.”
Attempting to strike a positive tone, BODY LANGUAGE: US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel assume very different postures during their meeting in the White House on Friday Merkel said it had been “much better to talk to one another than about one another”.
The visit represented an opportunity for the two leaders to reset their early relationship.
On the campaign trail, Trump called Merkel’s migration policy “catastrophic”, saying she “should be ashamed” for “ruining” Germany.
He also lashed out at Time magazine when it named Merkel person of the year in 2015 instead of him.
She has been a strident critic of Trump’s Muslim travel ban and the plan to build a wall on the Mexican border. She also took it upon herself to explain the Geneva Convention to him.
The German chancellor enjoyed a warm friendship with former presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush.
Merkel had prepared carefully for the meeting, watching Trump’s speeches, speaking to people who have met him and even studying a 1990 Playboy interview with him.
The visit was a tightrope walk for her, between building a partnership BACKHAND: Merkel and Trump leave after the press conference built on strong economic and security co-operation — especially in the context of Russia’s bullishness — and representing her values and those of the German people.
She is in a battle to win re-election for a fourth term later this year in Germany, where Trump’s low popularity ratings are on a par with Putin’s. — © The Daily Telegraph, London US President Donald Trump said this week that North Korea was “behaving badly” and had been “playing” the US for years”.
He made these remarks on Friday, just hours after his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, announced that military action against the North was “on the table”.
Tillerson said during a visit to South Korea that the days of approaching North Korea with “strategic patience” were over.
He said efforts to rein in the state had failed, and indicated that the US may resort to using force against Pyongyang, which is alarming the world with its nuclear weapons tests.
“Certainly we do not want things to get to military conflict.
“If they elevate the threat of their weapons programme to a level that we believe requires action, then that option’s on the table,” Tillerson said.
He added that the North “need not fear” the US, as he began a visit to Asia calling for a “new approach” to the rogue nation.
Washington’s most senior diplomat made his comments after he met Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister, in Tokyo.
A few hours later, Trump took to Twitter, where he attacked China for “doing little to help” tackle despotic North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been ‘playing’ the United States for years. China has done little to help!” he wrote.
During Tillerson’s visit, China said it would welcome fresh ideas on dealing with simmering tensions in the region, while a North Korean official in Beijing warned that the US and South Korea were taking the region to the “brink of nuclear war”.
Tensions were raised last week after Pyongyang fired four missiles, in an apparent response to joint military exercises by South Korea and the US, which began a few days earlier.
The exercises had caused Pyongyang to take “tough measures”, a North Korean diplomat told reporters in Beijing on Thursday.
He said they had bought the Korean peninsula “to the brink of nuclear war”, according to a report by the Global Times newspaper.
Last week the Chinese foreign minister suggested Pyongyang could halt its nuclear plans if the US and South Korea suspended military activities in the region.
US officials immediately rejected that proposal. — © The Daily Telegraph, London
They have been ’playing’ the United States for years