06 May 2017

News Story: Trump downplays tense ties with Australian PM

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday played down the strained ties between him and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the past and praised a "tremendous friendship" between the two countries.

"We had a good telephone call," said Trump after his first meeting with Turnbull in New York on the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Intrepid to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, referring to a reported acrimonious phone call back in January.

Later during a gala dinner, Trump acknowledged that the phone call was "a little bit testy."

"They said we had a rough phone call. We didn't really have a rough phone call," said Trump.

Read the full story at Xinhua