Danang: US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Asia-Pacific region was being held hostage by the “twisted fantasies” of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, as he called on countries to stand united against Pyongyang. Trump has embarked on a tour of Asia this week trying to rally regional support for curbing North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, warning that time is running out over the crisis.
“The future of this region and its beautiful people must not be held hostage to a dictator’s twisted fantasies of violent conquest and nuclear blackmail,” he said during a speech in Vietnam to the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
The region, he added, must “stand united in declaring that every single step the North Korean regime takes toward more weapons is a step it takes into greater and greater danger”. The US administration thinks China’s economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyongyang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.
Trump praises India’s growth story, PM Modi at APEC Summit
US President Donald Trump on Friday praised India's “astounding” growth after it opened its economy and also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he has been working successfully to bring the vast country and its people together.
Speaking at a gathering of CEOs on the sidelines of the annual APEC summit, Trump said that countries outside the grouping were also making “great strides in this new chapter for the Indo-Pacific”. He pointed out that India was celebrating the 70th anniversary of its independence and highlighted it was a sovereign democracy with a population of 1.3 billion.
Trump defiant on trade, vows to enforce ‘america first’ plan
President Donald Trump gave a spirited airing of his “America First” doctrine in a speech to Asia-Pacific leaders on Friday, vowing his country will “no longer tolerate” unfair trade, closed markets and intellectual property theft, as he seeks to rewrite rules of global commerce. In a speech that by turns lavished praise on Asia-Pacific nations and accused them of undercutting the world's largest economy, he said US interests had been ill-served by the architecture of global trade. US “will not tolerate... chronic trade abuses” he said as he took aim at the WTO.
