The U.S. President said the parties discussed arms control and relations with China.
US President Donald Trump considers his Sunday telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin extremely important. The American leader said this at a briefing for journalists at the White House on Monday. At the same time he specified that during the conversation the issues of arms control and relations with China were discussed, among others.
“We discussed a lot. We discussed China. We discussed a lot of different topics, but mostly the call was about oil, as you can imagine. They [the Russian authorities] have been very helpful in stabilizing the price [of hydrocarbons], stabilizing the number of [to be reduced] barrels”, – Trump said, commenting on his conversation with Putin and the agreements reached by the OPEC+ union.
“I think the number will be closer to 20 [million barrels per day]. Possibly 15 [million barrels per day]. But closer to 20 [million] than 10 [million]. I think it was an extremely important conversation”, – said the head of the White House.
He was asked to clarify whether the conversation touched upon strategic security and arms control issues. The reporter referred to a statement on the content of the conversation previously released by the Kremlin. The document stressed that the parties had also considered “topical issues of strategic security.
“We talked about armaments. Yes, we did. In reality, this was a very important part of the conversation. It’s good that we noticed”, – Trump said.
“I’d say that we mostly talked about China, we talked about their borders. We talked a little bit about our borders, our borders with Mexico, because Mexico, as you know, is a big part of the [OPEC+] deal”, – the president said.
In this regard, he explained that he appreciates the agreements reached by Washington and Mexico aimed at reducing the flow of oil into the world market.
“From Mexico’s point of view, it was very difficult. It was not an easy deal for Mexico and [its] president [Andres Manuel López Obrador]. We appreciated a certain degree of flexibility”, – Trump said.
“But we talked about borders, China, Mexico”, – he concluded.