Colin Dwyer
President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office on Saturday. It was one of five calls with foreign leaders Trump had scheduled for the day.
Drew Angerer\/Getty Images
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President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office on Saturday. It was one of five calls with foreign leaders Trump had scheduled for the day.
It has been a day thick with phone calls for President Trump. By the end of the day, the president will have spoken over the phone with the leaders of five countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Administration officials have not yet announced the content of the 50-minute phone call with Putin, which Vice President Mike Pence also sat in on.
Trump also has scheduled calls Saturday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It was Abe’s call that opened the day, with a discussion focused primarily on the U. S.-Japan alliance.
During the conversation, Trump «affirmed the the ironclad U. S. commitment to ensuring the security of Japan,» according to the White House, in what marks a departure from some of Trump’s statements during the presidential campaign.
During that campaign, Trump said specifically that he believes Japan does not sufficiently reimburse the U. S. for American military bases there. In the first presidential debate, Trump had suggested he would consider pulling those bases out of the country if Japan did not up its payments.
«We defend Japan. We defend Germany. We defend South Korea. We defend Saudi Arabia. We defend countries,» Trump said last September. «They do not pay us what they should be paying us because we are providing a tremendous service and we’re losing a fortune. »
That rhetoric left America’s Asian allies uncertain about how his incoming administration would handle trade and security in the region, as NPR’s Elise Hu reported last year.
On Monday, Trump confirmed his disapproval of one tentative agreement with Japan, signing a memorandum to withdraw the U. S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal that would have comprised 12 Pacific Rim countries, including Japan.
Despite that earlier move on the multilateral TPP, Trump and Abe also «committed to deepen the bilateral trade and investment relationship» on Saturday, according to the White House.
Trump and Abe agreed to meet in Washington, D. C., on Feb. 10.<\/p>\n