Posted on 09/24/2019 7:31:16 PM PDT by ransomnote
Remarks by President Trump and Prime Minister Lee of Singapore Before Bilateral Meeting | New York, NY
Issued on: September 23, 2019
InterContinental New York Barclay New York, New York
3:54 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. As we just said, we signed a very important agreement having to do with defense and mutual defense, and I guess you could say mutual offense, also.
But we — we’re now going to talk about trade. We do tremendous amounts of trade with Singapore. And the Prime Minister — highly respected. One of the truly most respected men anywhere in the world. And he’s been my friend for a long time. And we’re doing very well. But we do tremendous trade with Singapore, and we appreciate it very much, Mr. Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: Well, thank you, Mr. President. As you said, we’ve just signed an agreement to extend our memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: It’s the second time we are extending this. It reflects the very good defense relationship we have between the two countries, but also reflects our broader cooperation and friendship.
And, in economics, we have an FTA between the U.S. and Singapore.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: The volume of trade is substantial, and the volume of investments, too. In Singapore, you are one — you are our most important foreign investor. And, in America, as small as we are, we have 55 billion dollars’ worth of investments —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s not too bad.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: — in many different states. And (inaudible) they tell me a quarter million U.S. jobs. So it’s not bad for a small country.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Not bad.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: We’d like to do more, and we hope that you will do more in Singapore and also in the Asia Pacific region.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we had a very successful meeting with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, and it was in Singapore. And people don’t give that meeting as much credit as it deserves. The relationship was established, and it was a tremendous success.
And we saw each other there. Really got to know each other there very well. And you’ve done a fantastic job. It’s a great country.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: Well, we were very honored to host that first summit between you and —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: — Mr. Kim. We are happy that it has helped to turn the situation in Korea around and point it in the right direction. And we wish you every success in continuing to make progress on this very difficult task.
Q Mr. President, why did you go to the climate change meeting today? What prompted you to pop in there?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I believe in clean air and clean water. It’s very simple. We have the cleanest air. We have the cleanest water. Cleaner than it’s ever been before in our country. And I like clean air and I like clean water.
SNIP
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Some great numbers just came out.
MR. KUDLOW: PMI — manufacturing, up. Up. Unfortunately, Europe’s was down, and Germany’s was down a lot. It looks like we’re in a turning zone back up on manufacturing.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Others were down, and we’re up. And we continue to go in the right direction. We’re getting numbers that we never anticipated having. And we’re doing very well. Other parts of the world are not doing nearly as well.
But — and I think we have tremendous potential upward.
SNIP
Q Mr. President, are you content with the way Rudy Giuliani has been handling the Ukraine situation over the last —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think he was excellent. I watched him the other night. I haven’t watched that show in a long time. I don’t watch CNN because it’s fake news. But I watched Rudy take apart Fredo. Fredo’s performance was incompetent. Rudy took him apart.
The press doesn’t give him credit because they take little tiny snippets, where wherever Rudy was a little bit — if he mispronounces a word, they’ll show that. They won’t show the whole. Rudy Giuliani took Fredo to the cleaners. It’s the first time I’ve watched CNN in a long time, too. I hate to watch it because it’s so fake.
Okay? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END
3:59 P.M. EDT
Q Mr. President, why did you go to the climate change meeting today? What prompted you to pop in there?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I believe in clean air and clean water. It’s very simple. We have the cleanest air. We have the cleanest water. Cleaner than it’s ever been before in our country. And I like clean air and I like clean water.
When and where is this bilateral meeting?
Nevermind
President Trump is one busy dude. One meeting right after another.
WHen:
The bilateral meetings are still going on. Various nations pair up for meetings and schedule a series of them. I saw that the Indian Prime MInister held a series of 11 meetings with 11 countries.
President Trump said everyone wanted to meet with the US, but there wasn’t enough time to schedule everybody.
Sounds like the group meetings/introductory addresses started on the 23rd, and the pairs of countries started meeting on 24th so some were held today. I am trying to find out when they end but can’t find an overall schedule.
Where (sounds like a hotel in NY)
InterContinental New York Barclay
New York, New York
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