The third day of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, has more bilateral discussions between U.S. President Donald Trump and international leaders outside the traditional ‘group of seven‘ construct. The topics of Macron’s selected G7 group discussion include planetary sustainability, climate change, biodiversity, oceanography and aquatic justice.
Additionally, President Trump will be holding bilateral economic meetings with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (India) from outside the G7; and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel from inside the G7.
At the conclusion of the summit, 9:30am EDT, President Trump will hold a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron where it is likely Macron will exhaust his remaining pre-staged effort to advance the cause of multinational globalism; with customary assistance from rude left-wing American journalists.
♦ 2:30am EDT / 8:30am CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with President Abdel Fattal al-Sisi of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Biarritz, France
♦ 3:05am EDT / 9:05am CEST – THE PRESIDENT departs the Hotel du Palais en route to the Centre de Congrès Bellevue, Biarritz, France
♦ 3:10am EDT / 9:10am CEST – THE PRESIDENT arrives at the Centre de Congrès Bellevue, Biarritz, France
♦ 3:15am EDT / 9:15am CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Federal Republic of Germany, Biarritz, France
♦ 4:00am EDT / 10:00am CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a G7 working session on climate, biodiversity, and oceans. Biarritz, France
♦ 6:00am EDT / 12:00pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister Modi the Republic of India. Biarritz, France
♦ 7:00am EDT / 1:00pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a G7 working lunch on digital transformation, Biarritz, France
♦ 8:45am EDT / 2:45pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in the G7 closing session, Biarritz, France
♦ 9:30am EDT / 3:30pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a joint press conference with President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic, Biarritz, France
Carter Page appeared on Fox News today with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his work as an informant for the FBI in the Evgeny Buryakov case. The case involved Buryakov in New York and two other SVR agents, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy. [See Here]
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It never made sense that U.S. Person Carter Page was an FBI witness from 2013 through to March/May 2016 and yet in October 2016, to achieve a FISA warrant, the FBI called him an agent of a foreign government. [FISA APPLICATION]
It never made sense until we realized the FBI didn’t use Carter Page to gain a FISA warrant (that was an outcropping); the FBI used Carter Page to get the Steele Dossier into official investigative status. What they needed was the Dossier, Page was irrelevant other than he checked all the boxes needed to fabricate the illusion of “an agent of a foreign power.”
On August 15th, 2016, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok have a meeting with Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. At the conclusion of that meeting, Peter Strzok sends a text message to Ms. Page:
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office -that there’s no way he gets elected- but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
Here’s where Carter Page is about to come in…
Carter Page was not accused of being an agent of a foreign government to get a FISA warrant; that was a secondary -albeit necessary- outcome. Carter Page was accused of being an agent of a foreign government to get the Steele Dossier into the investigation.
The “small group” of corrupt DOJ and FBI officials; those same officials that became the “Mueller Team”; always had a plan to generate a special counsel investigation that they would carry out against the potential president-elect Trump. This investigation was their insurance policy…. what would be ‘investigated’ would be the Fusion/Ohr/Steele dossier.
Without Carter Page, the Steele Dossier is just an assembly of political opposition research. However, with Carter Page painted as an “agent of a foreign government” the Steele Dossier moves from opposition research into evidence that needs to be investigated.
The dossier is what the corrupt DOJ and FBI team needed. Carter Page was a way to put that dossier into evidence that needed to be investigated. That’s why the dossier is the primary evidence the FBI used to get the FISA Title-1 warrant.
Once they moved the dossier into official investigative status, it could then be passed off to Robert Mueller’s special counsel team for investigation. That Mueller team was the same team who worked to exploit the original creation of the dossier. It’s all the same people.
The DOJ (Bruce Ohr), Fusion GPS (Simpson and Nellie Ohr) and FBI (Pientka and Strzok) steered Christopher Steele to their allies in the State Dept. This is a plausible deniability maneuver. After the State Dept. also had the dossier, the FBI used the State Dept report of Steele’s information as the foundation for the claim that Carter Page was “an agent of a foreign power.”
All of this was done just to attach the dossier to a target. The target just needed to fit a profile with enough Russian contacts so the dossier could stick. That target was Carter Page. The FBI and DOJ didn’t care about Carter Page, what they wanted was the dossier.
As soon as they got the Special Counsel appointed, the dossier became the material to start the investigation of Trump… and all the names in the dossier (Manafort, Flynn etc).
Because they always knew there was no material substance to the dossier, the goal of the investigation was to get President Trump to obstruct it/them. All of the provocative action by the special counsel team was intended to provoke President Trump into taking action that could be defined as obstruction.
Fusion GPS and Nellie Ohr gave underlying material to Chris Steele.
Chris Steele created the dossier and laundered the Fusion material into the FBI through Bruce Ohr.
The FBI team then used the dossier to identify a target, Carter Page.
Carter Page was used to put the dossier into official investigative status, via the FISA application.
As valid investigative evidence, the dossier was then passed to Robert Mueller.
Robert Mueller then used the dossier investigation to target Trump people.
The Trump people were targeted in such a hostile manner to bait President Trump into obstructing the investigation.
The obstruction would then be used by political allies to remove President Trump.
This was the end goal of the “insurance policy”.
The insurance policy needed the Steele Dossier.
Carter Page was the means to an end; he was not the end itself.
The traditional G7 Family Photo event took an unusual twist on Sunday as leaders from Africa, India, South America and Australia joined the G7 assembly for the photo and leadership dinner at Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, France.
The backdrop is the grand plage (main beach) at the Hotel du Palais. The photo-op is the last event available to media before dinner [media were not allowed to the dinner].
In addition to the G7 leaders [Macron, Merkel, Conte, Johnson, Trudeau, Tusk (EU), Abe and Trump] you will note a large delegation from Africa, PM Modi (India), PM Morrison (AU), President Sisi (Egypt) President Piñera (Chile); along with David Malpass (World Bank) and others.
At the end of the video Chilean President Sebastian Piñera along with his wife, Celia Morel, join Mr and Mrs. Macron along with Mr. and Mrs. Trump, on the riser for a set of photographs which seemed to be requested by President Donald Trump.
The structure of the global trade reset is visible. The China decoupling is underway; the scale of this geopolitical dynamic is incredible.
KORUS (Korea-US) is in the books; the North American USMCA is complete, pending ratification; the EU has agreed to purchase U.S. beef exports; and effective today the Japan-US deal is agreed in principle (sans auto and industrial products TBD). Now President Trump is working on a post-Brexit UK-US bilateral package.
President Trump has single-handily, and purposefully, stalled the global economy and is forcing massive amounts of wealth back into the United States. In essence Titan Trump is engaged in a process of: (a) repatriating wealth (trade policy); (b) blocking exfiltration (main street policy); (c) creating new and modern economic alliances based on reciprocity; and (d) dismantling the post WWII Marshall plan for global trade and one-way tariffs.
Every minute element within this process, no matter how seemingly small, has President Trump’s full attention. He has assignments to many, but he relies upon none.
China and the EU have devalued their currency in an effort to block the impacts from President Trump and the ‘America First’ trade policy.
Because those currencies are pegged against the dollar, the resulting effect is a rising dollar value. The globalist IMF is now blaming President Trump for having a strong economy that forces international competition to devalue their currency.
That’s the stupid hypocrisy of global banking outlooks. They make a decision to devalue their currency, which causes the dollar value to rise, and then turn around and blame the U.S. dollar for being overvalued. The root cause of the devaluation is unaddressed in their argument.
The EU (specifically Germany and France) and China are trying to retain their global manufacturing position and offset the impact of President Trump’s tariffs by lowering the end value of their exports.
In the bigger picture this is why President Trump is the most transformative economic President in the last 75 years. The post-WWII Marshall Plan was set up to allow Europe and Asia to place tariffs on exported American industrial products. Those tariffs were used by the EU and Japan to rebuild their infrastructure after a devastating war. However, there was never a built in mechanism to end the tariffs…. until President Trump came along and said: “it’s over”!
After about 20 years (+/-), say 1970 to be fair, the EU and Japan received enough money to rebuild. But instead of ending the one-way payment system, Asia and the EU sought to keep going and build their economies larger than the U.S. Additionally, the U.S. was carrying the cost of protecting the EU (via NATO) and Japan with our military. The EU and Japan didn’t need to spend a dime on defense because the U.S. essentially took over that role. But that military role, just like the tariffs, never ended. Again, until Trump.
The U.S. economy was the host for around 50 years of parasitic wealth exfiltration, or as most would say “distribution”. [Note I use the term *exfiltration* because it better highlights that American citizens paid higher prices for stuff, and paid higher taxes within the overall economic scheme, than was needed.]
President Trump is the first and only president who said: “enough”, and prior politicians who didn’t stop the process were “stupid” etc. etc. Obviously, he is 100% correct.
For the past 30 years the U.S. was a sucker to keep letting the process remain in place while we lost our manufacturing base to overseas incentives. The investment process from Wall Street (removal of Glass-Stegal) only made the process much more severe and faster.
As a result Wall Street was now investing in companies whose best bet (higher profit return) was to pour money overseas. This process created the “Rust Belt”, and damn near destroyed the aggregate U.S. manufacturing industry. This process also decoupled Wall Street multinational corporations from Main Street USA.
Fast forward to 2017 through today, and President Trump is now engaged in a massive and multidimensional effort to re-balance the entire global wealth dynamic.
By putting tariffs on foreign imports he has counterbalanced the never-ending Marshal Plan trade program and demanded renegotiation(s).
Trump’s goal is reciprocity; however, the EU and Asia, specifically China, don’t want to give up a decades-long multi-generational advantage. This is part of the fight.
One could argue that China’s rise happened inside this period, and as a consequence they have no comprehension of an economic history without the institutional advantages.
Beijing has never competed with the U.S. under any terms of equivalence or fairness; they’ve only ever known the advantages. Combine that reality with the Chinese communist mindset and you get the extreme severity of their position.
So yeah, there’s going to be pain – for them; massive economic pain – as the process of reestablishing a fair trading system is rebuilt. This dynamic is the essence of reciprocity that benefits Main Street USA.
Unfortunately, putting ‘America First’ is now also against the interests of the U.S. multinationals on Wall Street; so President Trump has to fight adverse economic opponents on multiple fronts…. and their purchased mercenary army we know as DC politicians.
No-one, ever, could take on all these interests. Think about it… The EU, Asia, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, China, Russia, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the World Bank, Iran, U.S. Congress, Wall Street, the Big Club, Lobbyists, Hollywood, Corporate Media (foreign and domestic), and the ankle-biters in Never Trump…. All of these financial interests are aligned against Main Street USA and against President Trump.
Name one individual who could take them on simultaneously and still be winning, bigly.
They say he’s one man. They say they have him outnumbered. Yet somehow, as unreal as it seems, he’s the one who appears to have them surrounded.
It does not take a deep geopolitical weed-walker to see the background for inviting the African delegation to the Biarritz summit. Here we see the the G7 working session group on ‘partnerships with Africa‘:
What we don’t see in this picture is the main reason for the meeting, the 800lb panda in the room. All of these non-G7 members and meeting participants have been previously exposed to the One-Belt One-Road influence of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.
Combine World Bank President David Malpass into the equation, a direct U.S. nomination by President Trump now in place; mix in the visibility of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison; and then recognize the sudden appearance of Sebastian Pinera from Chile and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from India; and the picture of a multi-continental meeting to discuss the potential downstream ramifications of President Trump confronting China becomes visible.
It’s all about the economics folks…
A big expansion from the traditional group of seven. India, Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America are all represented at the summit today.
Frances’ First Lady Brigitte Macron took the spouses and partners of the G7 Summit leaders on a tour of a traditional Basque village near Biarritz, in the South of France.
First Lady Melania Trump and the entourage visited the Village of Espelette, the flower gardens of Villa Arnaga and the church of Saint-Etienne while their spouses were holding meetings and discussions at the G7 summit.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow discuss the ongoing trade and economic discussions amid the G7 summit in France. The G7 was originally formed to address economic issues amid the top industrial economies. President Trump has been trying to return to that focus.
Secretary Mnuchin did a good job knocking back the narrative gnats.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan announced the terms of a new U.S-Japan trade agreement have been reached. This part of the trade agreement was visible for some time; confirmed today. U.S Ambassador Lighthizer and Japanese Minister Motegi have worked this for a while. [Video and Transcript]
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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, thank you very much. We’ve been working on a deal with Japan for a long time. It involves agricultural and it involves e-commerce and many other things. It’s a very big transaction, and we’ve agreed in principle. It’s billions and billions of dollars. Tremendous for the farmers.
And one of the things that Prime Minister Abe has also agreed to is we have excess corn in various parts of our country, with our farmers, because China did not do what they said they were going to do. And Prime Minister Abe, on behalf of Japan, they’re going to be buying all of that corn. And that’s a very big transaction. They’re going to be buying it from our farmers.
So the deal is done in principle. We probably will be signing it around UNGA. It will be around the date of UNGA, which we all look forward to. And we’re very far down the line. We’ve agreed to every point, and now we’re papering it and we’ll be signing it at a formal ceremony.
And I just want to thank Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese people. You’ve been a fantastic friend, and we very much appreciate it. This is a tremendous deal for the United States. It’s a, really, tremendous deal for our farmers and agricultural ranchers, and also involves other things, including, as I said, e-commerce.
So, it’s very big and we look forward to it. And thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) With regard to the Japan-U.S. trade agreement, a series of intensive negotiations have been conducted between Minister Motegi and Ambassador Lighthizer in line with the Japan-U.S. joint statements on September 26 of last year.
And by now, how we successfully reached consensus with regard to the core elements of both the agricultural and industrial products of our bilateral consultations on August the 23rd. And I certainly welcome this development.
And now, as Mr. President pointed out, next month, at the end of September, both of us are going to attend the U.N. General Assembly. And, on that occasion, I do think that we’ll have the bilateral summit meeting. So we certainly have — we would like to set the goal of signing this Japan-U.S. trade agreement, seizing that opportunity.
We still have some remaining work that has to be done at the working level, namely finalizing the wording of the trade agreement and also finalizing the content of the agreement itself. But we would like to make sure that our teams would accelerate the remaining work for us to achieve this goal of realizing the signing of the agreement on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly at the end of September.
And I’m very happy that both of our teams have been working on the specific issue in a win-win manner, bringing both the benefits to Japan and the United States. And if we are to see the entry into force of this trade agreement, I’m quite sure that there will be the immense positive impact on both the Japanese as well as American economies.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Perhaps you may want to discuss the additional purchase of all of that corn, because we have a tremendous amount right now. And we’ve been working with the farmers and making very, very large payments for the unfair way they were treated by China.
And the farmers are very happy. They like — they like their President. They’re very happy. But I think it’s even better, and I think they’re even happier, when they hear you’re actually buying their products.
So perhaps you could say a couple of words just about the hundreds of millions of dollars of corn — existing corn — that’s there, that you’ll be buying.
PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) So with regard to the potential purchase of American corn, in Japan we are now experiencing inspect pest on some of the agricultural products. And there is a need for us to buy certain amount of agricultural products. And this will be done by the Japanese private sector. That means that Japanese corporations will need to buy additional agricultural products.
And we believe that there is a need for us to implement emergency support measures for the Japanese private sector to have the early purchase of the American corn.
Of course, there is something that is already a shared understanding between — by the Japanese public, Japanese private sector, as well. So that’s why, against such backdrop, I do think that there is a possibility for us to cooperate to address this issue.
And with regard to further details, I would like to continue discussing with you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And the Japanese private sector listens to the Japanese public sector very strongly. I’m not sure. It’s a little different than it is in our country perhaps. But they are — they have great respect for the public sector. So when I hear the private sector has agreed to this, we’re very happy about that.
And I’d just like to ask, perhaps, Bob, and your counterpart, if you’d like to say a few words.
AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Great. Thank you, Mr. President and Prime Minister, and Minister Motegi.
Well, first of all, what we have is an agreement on core principles. It has three parts: agriculture, industrial tariffs, and digital trade. And from our point of view, it is extremely important to our farmers and ranchers and those people who work in the digital space.
We’ll get into the details at another time, but generally, Japanese is our third-largest agricultural market. They import about $14 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products. And this will open up markets to over $7 billion of those products.
In the agriculture area, it will be a major benefit for beef, pork, wheat, dairy products, wine, ethanol, and a variety of other products.
It will lead to substantial reductions in tariffs and non-tariff barriers across the board. And I’ll just give you one example: Japan is, by far, our biggest beef market. We sell over $2 billion worth of beef to Japan. And this allow us to do with lower tariffs and to compete more effectively with people across the board, particularly the TPP countries and Europe.
So it’s very good news for our farmers and ranchers, but it’s also good news for those who work in the digital e-commerce space where it is the gold standard of an international agreement. This is an area that not only has been important to the President but been of particular importance to the Prime Minister.
So we’re very excited about this agreement. We look forward to finishing the additional work and having it be implemented as soon as possible in Japan and the United States.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Would you like to say something?
MINISTER MOTEGI: Thank you very much —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.
MINISTER MOTEGI: — Mr. President and Prime Minister Abe.
(As interpreted.) As the Prime Minister mentioned, based on the Japan-U.S. joint statement released by the two leaders on the 26th of September last year, myself and Ambassador Lighthizer had a series of ministerial negotiation on the Japan-U.S. trade agreement.
As we all know, the United States is the largest economy in the world, whereas Japan is also ranked third in terms of the total GDP. And also, among the (inaudible) economies, we are the very first and the second largest economies. And with this milestone of achievements we now have the full concurrence on various issues covering the agricultural, as well as industrial products, and also the digital and e-commerce. And the significance of this achievement cannot be over-emphasized. And I’m very happy to share this important achievement with you.
And on this occasion, myself and Ambassador Lighthizer had a chance to present what we have agreed at the ministerial level, and we successfully both obtained endorsement from President Trump and also Prime Minister Abe.
So the key mission for both myself and Ambassador Lighthizer is to complete the remaining work as soon as possible. Of course, I have my own team, which will focus on completing the remaining work. And I certainly hope that by working hand-in-hand between myself and Ambassador Lighthizer, and also between the Japanese and American teams, we will like to complete the remaining work as soon as possible.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Q Mr. President?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. Go ahead.
Q Will the auto tariffs remain in place? The U.S. tariffs on autos.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about with regard to China?
Q Yeah. With regard to Japan.
AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Well, there are a series — pardon me. There are a series of industrial tariffs that are being reduced. Auto tariffs are not in that group.
Q So they remain?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It depends. Are you talking about Japan or are you talking China? China is a very different situation.
Q Well, I’d love to hear your answer to both.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I can tell you — I mean, on China, they remain. On Japan, they stay the same. They’re staying the same.
This is a massive purchase of wheat also, in addition to everything else. This is a very large purchase of wheat, and the very, very large order of corn will go quickly. But importantly, it’s something that wasn’t in the agreement that we may not even — we may do that as a supplementary agreement. But we appreciate that very much. We just agreed to that on the other idea of the door.
So I just appreciate that very much. And we’ll do a great job. And the farmers are very thankful. Thank you very much.
Q Mr. President, on a separate issue, there are reports that the Iranian Foreign Minister is coming to Biarritz. Can you confirm that? Or do you plan to meet with him?
President Trump and Justin from Canada hold a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France. No-one is exactly sure why Justin from Canada is there; both leaders talked about the USMCA, again; and the media did not have any questions for anyone about Canada. [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – PRIME MINISTER TRUDEAU: Well, it’s always a pleasure to sit down with President Trump. We’ve had some good conversations already, particularly on the global economy. The Canadian and American economy are doing well, partially because of the trading relationship we have and the great work we did.
Quite frankly, around the table there’s a lot of people wanting to make trade deals with each other. And we have a deal that we were able to negotiate that’s good for our workers, good for our citizens, good for the middle class. And that’s the kind of thing that we need to see more of around the world.
Always a pleasure to talk about a broad range of global issues. And it’s good to sit down with you.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, we’re going to be significantly expanding our trading relationship when the USMCA gets done and completed. Our farmers love it. The unions love it. The workers love it. Manufacturers love it. Everybody likes it. I think most Democrats like it. So, hopefully, that’ll be put to a vote fairly soon.
It’s got tremendous support — both, I believe, Democrat and Republican. It has been signed and finalized, essentially, by Canada and, essentially, by Mexico. So we’re waiting for that from the United States.
And we have — we have really great support. And it’s something — I think it’s a very special agreement. And it replaces NAFTA, which is perhaps the worst trade agreement ever done. Certainly within our country it’s the worst. I can think of one worse, but it’s not within our country, it’s outside of our country, and that’s the WTO. That’s a beauty.
So we’re very happy with the agreement, and I congratulate you. I hope it gets done. I guess we should save the congratulations for when they vote, but hopefully that will be put to a vote pretty soon.
President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France. The U.S. and Japan have agreed to the terms of a trade deal. [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be here. We’re having some very good discussions, maybe even great discussions. And I will say that our relationship with Prime Minister Abe and Japan has been, I think, the best it’s ever been. I don’t know, I’ll let you speak to that. But I think it’s the best it’s ever been.
Go ahead.
We’re discussing trade. We’re doing a lot of trade together; a lot of military trade, actually, which is a big component. We’re also talking, obviously, about North Korea. And those discussions are going very well. And we’re discussing lots of other things. And the relationship between us, but also the relationship with us and the other countries, has really been — of the G7 — has really been outstanding.
From the moment we got here, we’ve been treated beautifully. I think I speak for Shinzo and myself. We’ve been treated beautifully. And I want to congratulate — and I have to say “thus far,” because we’re probably halfway through. But thus far, this has been really a great G7, and I want to congratulate France and your President because they have really done a great job.
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) I would like to congratulate you on the birth of your 10th grandchild.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) And speaking of our intensive diplomatic engagement, as shown by my own visit to Washington, D.C. back in April, followed by you and Madam First Lady’s state visit to Japan in the month of May as a very first state guest under the new era called Reiwa, and also followed by our meeting on the margins of G20 Osaka Summit.
So, as shown by these meetings, we have been conducting very frequent exchange of opinions, as well as visits. And looking back at the history of Japan-U.S. relations, we’ve never seen this frequent level of visits between the two leaders as we have seen at this moment.
So I think it is fair to say that, we as the leaders of Japan and the United States, now enjoy a robust relationship of trust more so than ever, and same can be said vis-à-vis the status of the Japan-U.S. relations in general.
And thanks to your tremendous support for me as a chair of the G20 Osaka Summit, we could send out a really powerful message toward addressing various global challenges. And just as importantly, I am ready to work very closely with you, Donald, so as to bring this year’s G7 Summit to a successful conclusion.
So, on this occasion, I certainly look forward to discuss with you specific ways to deepen our alliance between the two countries and also the regional situations, including North Korea as well as Iran. And, of course, we look forward to discussing bilateral trade as well as the economic relationship. And I certainly hope to have a very productive discussion with you.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you. And I want to also congratulate the great Matsuyama. You know who Matsuyama is? He’s a great golfer that we played with and we had a lot of fun.
And Shinzo is a very good golfer, and we have a lot of fun playing golf together. And we played with Ernie Els here, and Shinzo reciprocated with a great player, Matsuyama. And last week, in a big tournament — which is a one of the very biggest tournaments — he came in third, and he shot a 62 or 63 in the final round, which is not bad. Right? Which is not bad. So, he’s a great young man and he’s a great golfer. And please congratulate him for me. Thank you.
Okay.
Q Mr. President, do you have a trade deal with Japan? Have you agreed on a trade deal?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re working on one, and we’re fairly close. And I don’t know as to, Bob Lighthizer, what’s happening. Can you give us a status report?
AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Well, we’re very close and we’ve been working intensively. And hopefully, as a result of this meeting, we’ll be able to come to an agreement on core principles.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: A very big deal. It’s a major deal with Japan. If it gets done, we’ll possibly know by the end of this meeting.
Q Mr. President, did you sign off on a statement to Iran — a message to Iran that President Macron says he’s going to deliver on behalf of all the G7 countries?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I haven’t discussed that. No.
Q It’s —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I haven’t.
Q Do you support President Macron’s outreach to Iranian authorities?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. And I also support Prime Minister Abe’s outreach because he’s also speaking to Iran, and they have a very good relationship, from what I understand. But Iran is no longer the same country it was — as it was two and a half years ago. But we’ll do our own outreach. But, you know, I can’t stop people from talking. If they want to talk, they can talk.
Q What are some of the issues you all talked about at dinner last night?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Why don’t you tell me what we spoke about last night? (Laughter.)
Q I’m asking you, sir.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because there was a lot of inaccurate reporting. We had a really good dinner last night.
And I had a fantastic lunch with the President of France yesterday. The best — frankly — and I told him, and I was totally honest — probably an hour and a half. Many of you saw it. I think it was the best hour and a half I’ve ever spent with him, President Macron.
It was a perfect period of time. And yet, I picked up stories, and I read like it was the opposite. It was really was. I mean, it doesn’t matter; you can write whatever you want to write. But it was false reporting.
We had a very, very good lunch, and we had a very, very good dinner last night. Everybody was at the dinner. And I think it was really good. We discussed Iran. We discussed trade. We discussed China. And we discussed many things. But it was a very, very good — a very good dinner.
Q Mr. President, you said you discussed Russia, and you said earlier it was a “lively” discussion. Do you feel that the other members of the G7 would encourage Russia to join again, the way you are?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think that’s a work in progress. We have a number of people that would like to see Russia back. I think it would be — I think it would be advantageous to many things in the world. I think it would be a positive. Other people agree with me. And it’s something that we’re discussing.
I don’t know that we’ll make a decision one way or the other, but we did have a discussion about Russia last night, as to whether or not we want to invite them back. I think it’s advantageous. I think it’s a positive. Other people agree with me, and some people don’t necessarily agree.
Q How do you expect to overcome those differences?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t think we’re going to — maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll just leave it the way it is.
Q Can you say who were some of those who agreed with you on inviting Russia back?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I could, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Some of the people that I was surprised — I was actually surprised at a couple of them because I didn’t think they had a good relationship, and it was good enough that they said, “Yes, we’d like to have them back.”
It’s — it’s ongoing discussion. No decision — no decision was made. We didn’t do a vote or anything. Just discussion.
Q Are you concerned at all about North Korea conducting more tests?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m not happy about it. But, again, he’s not in violation of an agreement. We speak. I received a very nice letter from him last week. We speak. He was upset that South Korea was doing the “war games,” as you call them. I don’t think they were necessary either, if you want to know the truth.
And I said to my people, “You can have them or not. I would recommend against them, but I’m going to let you do exactly what you want to do.” I said that to all of my people. I said, “I don’t want to interfere because I think if you want to do them, you can do them, if you think it’s necessary. But I think it’s a total waste of money.” And they did a modified version of them.
John Bolton, would you say that’s correct? It’s a very much —
AMBASSADOR BOLTON: Yes, very much modified.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: — modified version. But I think it was unnecessary to do, frankly.
Q Any update on another meeting with North Korea?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Probably have one. Yeah. Probably. But — so I’m not — I’m not liking short range because short range is Shinzo’s — you know, it’s really his territory. I mean, I’d like to ask, Shinzo, how do you feel about North Korea and the testing of short-range missiles? He’s not thrilled.
PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) So, our position is very clear: That the launch of short-range ballistic missiles by North Korea clearly violates the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions. So, in that sense, it was extremely regrettable for us to experience another round of the launch of the short-range ballistic missiles by North Korea in recent days.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And I can understand how the Prime Minister of Japan feels. I mean, I can. It’s different. But, I mean, I can understand that fully.
Q Mr. Prime Minister, would you like President Trump to come further to your position on this?
PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) As we have done before, I would like to make sure that we — meaning, myself and President Trump — will always stay on the same page when it comes to North Korea.
And also, I would like to underscore that I fully support the U.S.-North Korea process 100 percent.
Q But are you on the same page, if you see these things so differently? I mean —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think, ultimately, we’re always on the same page. As long as he’s Prime Minister and as long as I’m President, I think we’re always on the same page.
Q Sorry, but, Mr. President, you don’t think that the short-term — or the short missile launches are —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, because I never —
Q — are a violation of U.N. resolutions?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: — because I never discussed that with him personally. I mean, you’re talking about personally; I never discussed that with him. I discussed long-range ballistic, and, that, he cannot do. And he hasn’t been doing it. And he hasn’t been doing nuclear testing. He has done short range, much more standard missiles. A lot of people are testing those missiles, not just him. A lot of people are testing those missiles. We’re in the world of missiles, folks, whether you like it or not.
I have confidence that, in the end, Kim Jong Un — who I’ve gotten to know very well — will do the right thing. I feel that he will do the right thing. I think it’s to his advantage to do the right thing. I think North Korea has tremendous potential as a country, economically. I think it’s got — I think, maybe, there’s no country that you could talk of in terms of emerging that has the potential that North Korea has. I think he understands that better than anybody. And I think, in the end, he will do the right thing.
We’ll see. Maybe not, but maybe. But I think he’ll do the right thing. We’ll see what happens.
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