President Donald Trump arrived Sunday at the presidential palace in Hanoi under gray skies and a light drizzle.
The mood was festive, however, as he exited the presidential limo and enjoyed a long handshake with Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang. The two men spoke in hushed tones, with Trump, whose back was to cameras, nodding in agreement as his counterpart spoke.
Trump broke into a smile as a young Vietnamese girl presented him with a bouquet of red roses.
U.S. President Donald Trump, (left), and Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, (right), attend the welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday
Quang led Trump along a red carpet that workers hurriedly set out this morning for the U.S. president’s arrival and through the courtyard in front of the presidential palace.
Young girls dressed in silver tutus danced and waved Vietnamese flags for Trump as he walked past them and over to a reviewing stand. He and Quang reviewed several groups of Vietnamese troops before they finished their route, coming to a row of Vietnamese and U.S. officials that included Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Trump shook the hands of both countries’ officials and returned to the reviewing platform. The rain coming down more aggressively than when he first stepped out his car, which is flown with him to every destination he visits, Trump and Quang soon rushed up the steps of the vibrant yellow palace and entered the building.
They’re in a bilateral meeting now. The leaders will take questions from the press on the backside of the building when they’re finished.
Now in his eighth day in Asia, and tenth day away from Washington, Trump showed signs of wear and tear on Saturday evening at a formal banquet in Vietnam.
A sleepy-looking Trump opened and closed his eyes repeatedly during his host’s toast, a set of dry remarks that had to be translated bit by bit for him from Vietnamese to English.
When Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang’s speech had concluded Trump, who does not partake in alcohol, raised a glass of dark liquid to his foreign counterpart and took a sip. A White House official told DailyMail.com the full-brimmed glass was filled with Diet Coke.
‘We have come a long way, the United States and Vietnam. We’ve seen it from both sides of the picture, and this is the pleasant side,’ Trump said in his own, more brief, remarks after the toast.
President Donald Trump had a tough time staying focused on Saturday evening at a formal banquet in Vietnam
A sleepy-looking Trump opened and closed his eyes repeatedly during his host’s toast, a set of dry remarks that had to be translated bit by bit for him from Vietnamese to English
When Vietnam President Trần Đại Quang’s speech had concluded Trump raised a glass of dark liquid to his foreign counterpart that a White House official confirmed was Diet Coke to DailyMail.com
‘We have come a long way, the United States and Vietnam. We’ve seen it from both sides of the picture, and this is the pleasant side,’ Trump said in his own, more brief, remarks
Trump began his day 13 hours ago in Da Nang, Vietnam, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
In a private talk on the sidelines of the summit, Trump says Vladimir Putin told him that Russia did not put its thumb on the scales in the contest last year that brought the sitting U.S. president to power. Trump revealed the conversation to reporters during a flight to Vietnam’s capital city on Saturday evening.
The U.S. president is making a one-day swing through Hanoi before he heads to his sixth and final destination – the Philippines – on a 12-day diplomacy circuit of East Asia.
Trump is the fourth United States president to visit Vietnam since an armistice in 1975 following a 20-year war between the two countries that saw the U.S. side with the south, where Da Nang is located, over the communist-led government in the north.
At a banquet on Saturday evening honoring Trump’s presence, Vietnamese President Quang acknowledged ‘difficulties’ in the relationship over the years and the ‘ups and downs of history’ that preceded the current era of ‘peace, stability, cooperation, and development.’
But Quang said the present period is a ‘vibrant time of bilateral relations’ between the former enemies.
‘The presence of Mr. President and the distinguished American guests in Hanoi at the invitation of Vietnamese leaders is a testimony to that, as well as to the strong vitality of our relationship,’ he said.
Trump commented in his toast that it is indeed a ‘very, very special time’ to be in Vietnam, having seen the relationship ‘from both sides of the picture.’
‘You are doing a spectacular job, your people are doing a spectacular job, and in the United States likewise we are doing very, very well,’ Trump said, touting America’s economic strength since he took office.
Trump told Quang: ‘I toured Vietnam today. I was through the streets of Hanoi, and it’s incredible to see, incredible to watch, and it’s truly one of the great marvels. It really is something to behold. I would like to congratulate the people of Vietnam; I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on an outstanding job.’
He also offered his condolences to Quang on the loss of life in Typhoon Damrey, a devastating storm that killed more than 100 people last week in the Vietnamese city of Hoi An.
‘I know you will rebuild, and the families will slowly rebuild. Very tough to recover from that kind of a loss,’ the visiting president added.
‘And at the same time, our congratulations on a job well done. Vietnam has truly become one of the great miracles of the world, and it’s very impressive. No matter where you come from, no matter who you are, when you look at what’s happened in Vietnam, there is nothing more impressive,’ he said.
Trump and Quang are scheduled to meet mid-morning on Sunday and take questions from the press at a joint news conference. After that, Trump flies to Manila for two summits before a long flight back to the U.S.
Earlier on Saturday, after Trump’s meeting with Putin in Da Nang, the United States and Russia agreed cooperate to defeat the ISIS terror army.
A statement from the Russian government said the two countries are committed to keeping lines of communication open in order to ‘prevent dangerous incidents between American and Russian military forces’ while the U.S. and its allies are fighting ISIS in Syria.
Putin and Trump both attended the APEC leaders’ summit on Saturday, and were pictured talking and shaking hands before it began.
Trump told reporters later aboard Air Force One that the pair had ‘two or three very short conversations’ during the summit.
‘He said he didn’t meddle. He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,’ Trump said of their conversation about the 2016 election. ‘But I just asked him again, and he said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they’re saying he did.’
Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin talked ‘on the sidelines’ of the APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam on Saturday, according to a ‘joint statement’ issued in Russian by the Kremlin
Trump did most of the talking, according to a person who witnessed the conversation, but he stopped to listen to Putin speak as well
Trump did most of the talking during the meeting, according to a person who witnessed the conversation.
An English translation of a Russian-language version of the statement issued afterward says the two leaders ‘confirmed their determination to defeat ISIS in Syria.’
It also confirmed that the U.S. and Russia agree that ‘that the conflict in Syria cannot have a military solution.’
Instead, the White House and the Kremlin are committed to forcing Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad to engage in a political transition out of power, as dictated by a resolution the United Nations Security Council passed in December 2015.
The resolution demanded a ‘free and fair’ election by a deadline that passed in June 2017.
Trump and Putin also discussed ‘de-escalation zones’ in Syria, which the Assad regime has largely ignored and continues to strike with impunity.
The Kremlin published a Russian-language ‘joint statement’ on its website Saturday afternoon while Trump and Putin were attending the APEC meeting.
Trump and Putin discussed ‘de-escalation zones’ like this one in Syria, which the Bashar al-Assad regime continues to strike as it tries to obliterate anti-government rebels
Assad would have had to hold elections to replace himself by June 2017, according to the terms of a UN Security Council resolution that Trump and Putin jointly backed in a statement on Saturday issued in Vietnam
Pictured in this video screen grab is a Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 strategic bomber hitting ISIS targets near the city of Abu Kamal, Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syira last week
It was negotiated behind the scenes in Da Nang by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had told reporters on Friday that Trump and Putin would not meet in Vietnam.
‘Regarding a Putin meeting, there was never a meeting confirmed, and there will not be one that takes place due to scheduling conflicts on both sides,’ Sanders said aboard Air Force One.
‘There is no formal meeting or anything scheduled for them.’
‘Now, they’re going to be in the same place,’ she allowed. ‘Are they going to bump into each other and say hello? Certainly possible and likely.’
Before the battle: ISIS supporters paraded through the Syrian city of Raqqa, which was the base of operations for their self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ until their defeat there this year
Most news photographers were kept out of the Da Nang resort where the APEC leaders’ summit was held on Saturday, leading to griping from journalists – and speculation about whether the news blackout was ordered to avoid documenting Trump’s meeting with Putin
The press was largely shut out of the Intercontinental Da Nang Sun Palace resort where 21 world leaders met on Saturday.
American news photographers were not allowed in the building despite a longstanding arrangement with the White House permitting them to take pictures at pre-approved times of the day.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state-run Sputnik news website that the joint statement was prepared specifically to go along with the Vietnam summit, suggesting the White House knew Trump and Putin would meet there.
Trump has shown little appetite for holding talks with Putin unless there is some sense that progress could be made on festering issues such as Syria, Ukraine and North Korea.
After emphasizing last year on the campaign trail that it would be nice if the United States and Russia could work together on world problems, Trump has had limited contact with Putin since taking office.
Trump publicly sitting down with Putin also revives the issue of Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election, which remains under investigation.
Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been indicted in the probe along with his former deputy, Rick Gates.