Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks Prior to a Working Breakfast With Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia and an Exchange With Reporters in Osaka, Japan

June 29, 2019

President Trump. Thank you very much. It's an honor to be with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, a friend of mine, a man who has really done things in the last 5 years in terms of opening up Saudi Arabia. And I think especially what you've done for women. I'm seeing what's happening; it's like a revolution in a very positive way.

And I want to just thank you on behalf of a lot of people, and I want to congratulate you. You've done, really, a spectacular job.

We've had some meetings on trade and economic development and on the military, of course. And the meetings have been really terrific. As you know, Saudi Arabia is a big purchaser of American products and especially of America military equipment. We make the best in the world, by far. And we appreciate that they do. They create—at least a million jobs are created by the purchases made by Saudi Arabia.

So we're very happy to be with you. Great honor. Thank you all very much for being here. Thank you.

Would you like to say something?

Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Thank you, Mr. President, for your warm welcome. We're trying to do our best for our country, Saudi Arabia. And it's a long journey, so we've—believe me—my people, Saudi people, did a lot in the past few years, and we need to do more. And with you, Mr. President, we did a lot of great achievement in the political side, security side, military side, and economical side, especially been never done before.

President Trump. Right.

Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. So I believe that will contribute in our both country, good for GDP growth, job creation, and more safety for both countries. So we hope to do more, Mr. President.

President Trump. And one thing that you're doing maybe is almost at the top of the list, and probably is at the top of the list, is your fight on terror.

For a long time, there were questions as to whether or not Saudi Arabia—and other countries—were sponsoring terror. And I know, when speaking to not only you, but your father, the King, a tremendous effort has been put on to go the exact opposite way. And so all of the money that was going for groups that we don't like, that are not good, you've ceased. And I appreciate that very much. We've carefully followed it; we've studied it very carefully. And you have actually stopped. And I really appreciate that, and the world really appreciates it.

So thank you very much. And thank you for being here.

Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Thank you, Mr. President.

President Trump. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody.

Q. Mr. President, will you—[inaudible]—the Crown Prince on the death of Jamal Khashoggi, sir? Will you discuss the death of Jamal Khashoggi? North Korea/South Korea

Q. Mr. President, will you meet with Kim Jong Un tomorrow at the DMZ?

President Trump. Well, I put a—I'll be going to South Korea. We're going with President Moon. We were with the President in Japan for a little while, and we spoke. And all I did is put out a feeler if he'd like to meet.

He sent me a very beautiful birthday card. And I just—what I did is—and he—I guess he got my return letter, because it's in the newspaper. It's him reading the return letter.

But I just put out—I just thought of it this morning. We'll be at the area. We may go to the DMZ, or the border, as they call it. That, by the way, when you talk about a wall, when you talk about a border, that's what they call a border. Nobody goes through that border. Just about nobody. That's called a real border.

But we're going there. We're going to look at it, be—as really a point of interest. We have some very big meetings with President Moon. We are going to be seeing our soldiers. As you know, we have 42,000 troops over in South Korea. And we're going to be seeing our soldiers. I'll be making a speech to our soldiers. They're incredible. They're really incredible.

And the base, which was built by South Korea for us, is a $10 billion base. And it's the latest and the greatest. It's something special.

So we're going to the base. We'll be doing—I mean, many of you will be coming with me, so I don't have to go through it too much, and most of you know the schedule better than anybody. You know every inch of that schedule. I know you well. So we'll be there.

And I just put out a feeler, because I don't know where he is right now; he may not be in North Korea. But I said, if Chairman Kim would want to meet, I'll be at the border. I'd certainly—we seem to get along very well, I can tell you. We seem to get along. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

You know, for the stupid people that say, "Oh, he gets along"—no, it's good to get along. It's good to get along. Because, frankly, if I didn't become President, you'd be right now in a war with North Korea. You'd be having a war right now with North Korea. And by the way, that's a certainty. That's not, like, maybe.

And instead of that, and instead of nuclear weapons being tested every day, and instead of ballistic missiles and all of the things, we got our prisoners back, our hostages; they're back—safely back. And we're very happy about that. We're very happy about the remains having come back. And they're bringing back—in fact, we were notified they have additional remains of our great heroes from many years ago. And, if you remember, they were brought into Hawaii. Mike Pence, Vice President, was there.

And most importantly, they have not done any nuclear tests. They haven't done any large-scale ballistic missile tests. So a lot of good things have happened since the days of—we're in Japan. And I can tell you every—it seemed every week somebody was calling me to say, "Missiles are being shot over Japan."

And maybe the happiest of what we've done are the Japanese people and our great Prime Minister Abe. He's a great Prime Minster, the Prime Minister of Japan. He's very happy with what we've done.

So I'm in no rush whatsoever. But I was in South—I will be in South Korea. I let him know, and we'll see. If he's there, we'll see each other for 2 minutes. That's all we can. But that will be fine. And some of you will be there. Thank you.

Death of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Q. Mr. President, will you address the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, sir, with the Crown Prince?

President Trump. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd./China-U.S. Trade

Q. [Inaudible]—concessions on Huawei?

President Trump. Yes, thank you very much.

Yes, we'll be meeting with—I'll be meeting with President Xi at about 12 o'clock today. We'll be discussing Huawei, but we'll be discussing the trade deal. We'll be discussing a lot things. I was with him last night. A lot was accomplished, actually, last night. The relationship is very good with China.

As to whether or not we can make a deal, time will tell. But the relationship itself was—is really great. We had an amazing—we have a very good friendship. We have a very, very good friendship, like I have with Muhammad. I mean, we have a great relationship, and that's very important, especially when you have a place like—whether it's Saudi Arabia, in all fairness, or China, or any country. Or any country. Or North Korea. It's about relationship. Otherwise, you end up in very bad wars and lots of problems. The relationship is very important.

Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:40 a.m. in the Pisces Room at the Imperial Hotel, Osaka. In his remarks, he referred to King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia; and Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim, and Kim Dong-chul, U.S. citizens formerly detained by North Korean officials who returned to the U.S. on May 10, 2018.

Donald J. Trump, Remarks Prior to a Working Breakfast With Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia and an Exchange With Reporters in Osaka, Japan Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/333675

Filed Under

Categories

Attributes

Location

Japan

Simple Search of Our Archives