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Trump Meets Abe, Modi and Merkel on G-20 Sidelines

VOA News

   VOA's White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman in Osaka, Japan,
   contributed to this report.

   U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday morning with several world
   leaders on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan.

   Trump started his day with summit host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of
   Japan, followed by short discussions with Indian Prime Minister
   Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- all of whom Trump
   criticized just hours before he landed in Osaka.

   "We'll be discussing trade, we'll be discussing military,'' Trump said
   as he met with Abe before heading to the talks.

   Trump, recently, had publicly criticized the U.S.-Japan defense
   alliance, that has been in place since World War II.

   "If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three. We will go in and
   protect them with our lives and with our treasure," Trump said during a
   telephone interview with Fox Business News on Wednesday. "We will fight
   at all costs''¦ but if we are attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us
   at all. They can watch on a Sony television."

   The White House said Trump and Abe had "reaffirmed their commitment to
   U.S.-Japan coordination on shared security challenges, including on the
   Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran."

   In Trump's meeting with Modi, "the leaders acknowledged the
   unprecedented breadth and depth of bilateral ties, including economic,
   trade, energy, defense and security, counterterrorism and space,"
   according to the White House.

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