Trump, Putin discuss oil price plunge, coronavirus
31 March, 2020
President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed plunging oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic Monday, as Trump said Moscow is pressing for a finish to US sanctions.
Both "expressed serious concern regarding the scope of the spread of the coronavirus" and "discussed closer cooperation," according to a Kremlin statement on what it referred to as the "lengthy" phone call.
The White House said in another statement Trump and Putin had "decided to work closely together through the G20" against the virus and the economical shock caused by travel bans and social distancing.
Both statements reported that the oil market turmoil was discussed, with the White House version stating agreement on the "need for stability in global energy markets."
The Kremlin version said only that they "exchanged opinions" on oil.
Earlier, Trump had said he would use the call to raise objections over a Russian-Saudi price war driving down world oil prices and "really hurting" the united states energy industry.
"That is a fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia... plus they both went crazy," Trump told Fox News in an interview shortly before speaking with Putin.
"I never thought I'd be saying that maybe we have to have an oil (prices) increase, because we do," Trump said.
Sanctions
Trump also told Fox he expected Putin would use the call to push for a lifting of US sanctions on Russia.
"He'll probably require that," Trump told Fox News. "He's been asking that for just two years."
Trump didn't say what his response would be, noting that he previously put sanctions on Russia but adding: "They don't like that. Frankly we should be able to get along."
Neither the Kremlin nor White House statement mentioned sanctions.
The majority of US sanctions against Russia were imposed over Moscow's annexation of Crimea in Ukraine and what US investigators say was a concerted attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election won by Trump.
Last Thursday, Putin told G20 leaders during a conference call that he wanted a moratorium on sanctions as a "matter of life and death" through the global coronavirus outbreak.
In the comments Putin did not specify which countries he was talking about but Russia is being hit hard by the monetary fallout from coronavirus and the parallel oil price drop.
Another point of US-Russian contention is Venezuela, where Washington, supported by a large number of other countries, has been trying unsuccessfully to market the toppling of leftist strongman Nicholas Maduro. Russia is one of the few countries propping up his government.
The White House statement said "President Trump reiterated that the problem in Venezuela is dire, and most of us don't mind spending time in seeing a democratic transition to end the ongoing crisis."
The Kremlin statement didn't mention Venezuela.
Russian state oil company Rosneft said Saturday it really is taking out of Venezuela and argued that US sanctions on a Rosneft subsidiary -- imposed within Washington's try to cripple the Maduro government's earnings sources -- should now be lifted.
However, Russia remains a key partner to Caracas.
'Every country does it'
Trump has often resisted punishing Moscow, which denies meddling in US politics, but his hand on imposing sanctions was forced by his own Republican party in Congress, which sees the Putin government as hostile.
The warm relationship between Trump and Putin -- seen by many Western capitals as an extremely authoritarian leader accountable for assassinations of opponents in the home and abroad -- is a constant way to obtain controversy in america.
In his Fox interview, Trump dismissed reports that Russia and China would like to exploit the coronavirus disruption by planting disinformation targeted at putting america in a bad light.
"They do it and we do it," he said, calling The Washington Post newspaper, which recently reported on the problem, "fake."
"Every country does it," he said.
Trump then questioned why Russia was considered an enemy by many in the West. As he has often previously, he again also cast doubt on that which was for decades the dependable transatlantic alliance between your United States and Germany.
"I'm not saying they're babies, I'm not saying they're perfect. We may discuss that too, incidentally. I'm not saying they're perfect," he said of the Russians.
"But you know in addition they fought World War II, they lost 50 million people. These were our partner in World War II.
"Germany was the enemy and Germany is similar to this wonderful thing. Well, Germany takes good thing about us on trade for a long time. They pay much too little in NATO... and today we don't talk to Russia, we speak to Germany."
Source: www.thejakartapost.com