Trump shifts stance on China and NATO, sours on Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - After less than three months in office, President Donald Trump has abruptly shifted his stance on an array of foreign policy issues from the U.S. relationship with Russia and China to the value of the NATO alliance, Reuters reports.

Trump, who ran for the White House on a pledge to shake up the status quo in Washington, repeatedly lashed out at China during the campaign, accusing Beijing of being a "grand champion" of currency manipulation.

Candidate Trump also dismissed the NATO military alliance as obsolete and said he hoped to build warmer ties with Russia.

But at a White House news conference and in a newspaper interview on Wednesday, April 12, he offered starkly different views on those issues, saying his relationship with Moscow was souring while ties with Beijing were improving. He also lavished praise on NATO, saying it was adapting to changing global threats.

"I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete," Trump said as he stood at a news conference alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in the White House East Room on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Trump said he had growing concerns about Russia's support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We may be at an all-time low in terms of a relationship with Russia," said Trump, who ordered the firing of U.S. cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield last week to punish Assad for suspected use of poison gas in Syria's civil war.

While criticizing Russia on Wednesday, Trump said he and Xi had bonded during the Chinese president's visit to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where they dined together with their wives and held talks.

Ahead of that visit, Trump had predicted "difficult" discussions on trade.

The improving ties with Beijing were underscored when Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on Wednesday that he would not declare China a currency manipulator as he had pledged to do on his first day in office.