WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would visit Washington in the coming week, hailing him as “very nice” despite tensions over Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.
“He’s a very nice gentleman and he’s going to come to the White House very shortly, within the next week or less,” Trump said after the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party secured election victory in part by vowing to stand up to the US president.
“I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters in a cabinet meeting.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister just last month, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
Trump however downplayed any possible tensions with the Canadian — despite repeatedly calling for Carney’s country to become the 51st US state.
“I think we’re going to have a great relationship. He called me up yesterday, he said ‘Let’s make a deal’,” Trump said.
“They both hated Trump, and it was the one that hated Trump, I think, the least that won. I actually think the Conservative hated me much more than the so-called Liberal.”
Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
https://arab.news/4rjch
Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
- “I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters
- “I think we’re going to have a great relationship”
Screaming students give French president rockstar greeting in China
- Macron arrived in Chengdu on Thursday evening after talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing that canvassed relations between the two governments, and as the French leader sought to shore up Chinese support for a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine
CHENGDU, China: Surrounded by security, French President Emmanuel Macron made his way through crowds of young fans, screaming with excitement, at a university in southern China on Friday, receiving a greeting more reminiscent of a rock star than a politician.
Hundreds of students and residents lined up outside a university sports hall in Chengdu to welcome Macron, some waiting for hours for the resident’s arrival.
“I’m delighted and honored that he has come to Chengdu and our Sichuan University,” 21-year-old material sciences student Ye Maoxuan said, describing the French leader as “charming.”
With a wall of students’ cellphone cameras fixed on the French head of state, the buzz around Macron’s visit quickly spread via social media.
He had already caused a stir after he was filmed on a surprise jog in a local park on Friday morning.
“We saw the videos online. He looks like he is still very lean and very healthy,” said 20-year-old student Su Chang, standing behind temporary barriers erected to contain the waiting crowd.
When Macron arrived around 3 p.m., students jostled for a chance to shake his hand in rapturous scenes that echoed his 2023 visit to a university campus in Guangzhou.
Macron arrived in Chengdu on Thursday evening after talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing that canvassed relations between the two governments, and as the French leader sought to shore up Chinese support for a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Closer to home, Sichuan University students said they hoped Macron’s visit would bring stronger academic ties.
“I think we should carry out some cooperative projects between our universities and France,” Ye, the material sciences student, said as he waited to enter the venue via a security check.
“China and France have advantages in different fields, so that we can learn from each other.”
While the president spent the afternoon on campus, his wife, Brigitte Macron, paid a visit to Chengdu’s giant panda research base.
The two nations signed an agreement to bring two pandas from China to France by 2027, replacing two that were recently returned to Chengdu from a French zoo.
“Sending the pandas to France is a display of the very friendly interactions between the Chinese and French people,” clinical medicine student Gu Xingyu said, ahead of Macron’s arrival.
“We really hope ... it can promote the friendship between our two countries.”
