President Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping “were hoping I was watching” their joint appearance at a large military parade in Beijing.
“I thought it was a beautiful ceremony. I thought it was very very impressive, but I understood the reason they were doing it. And they were hoping I was watching — and I was watching,” Trump said in the Oval Office, as he hosted Polish President Karol Nawrocki.
“My relationship with all of them is very good. We’re going to find out how good it is over the next week or two,” he added, in reference to his attempts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.
The Chinese military parade marked the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat by the US military in World War II — and featured chummy interactions between Putin, Xi and friendly leaders such as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Belarus’ leader Aleksandr Lukashenko.
“I watched [Xi’s] speech last night,” Trump went on. “President Xi is a friend of mine, but I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech, because we helped China very much.”
