HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump’s visit to Asia (all times local):
12:05 p.m.
Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang says his country wants to settle disputes in the South China Sea through peaceful negotiations.
Quang made the comments Sunday during a joint appearance with President Donald Trump, who is on a brief state visit to Vietnam. Trump had offered during an earlier meeting Sunday with Quang to serve as a mediator on the South China Sea territorial disputes.
Vietnam and China along with four others claim all or parts of the strategic waters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam for a state visit later Sunday. Disputes over the South China Sea are expected to be high on the agenda during Xi’s talks with Vietnamese leaders.
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11:50 a.m.
President Donald Trump has highlighted trade issues in meetings with Vietnam’s prime minister and the secretary general of its Communist Party.
Trump told Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong (nuh-WEE’-ihn FOO Trawng) that trade has become a very important element in the relationship between the two countries.
The president delivered a similar message later to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (nuh-WEE’-ihn SOO’-an FOOK). Trump urged Vietnam to buy missiles and other weapons systems from the United States, seeming to suggest that it would help erase a trade imbalance. Trump says the U.S. “makes the greatest missiles in the world.”
Outside of trade, Trump says he looks forward to the onetime adversaries U.S. and Vietnam having a fantastic relationship for years to come.
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11:20 a.m.
President Donald Trump says stronger U.S. relations with Russia would benefit the globe and suggests that Russian sanctions may be lifted.
Trump says in Vietnam that Russia has been “very heavily sanctioned” and “it’s now time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken.” The president is pointing to the need to work with Russia to solve problems in Syria, North Korea and Ukraine.
Trump says he believes “having Russia in a friendly posture as opposed to always fighting them is an asset.”
Congress slapped sanctions on Russia last summer for interfering in the 2016 election. Those sanctions were in addition to existing U.S. penalties on Russia for its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine and 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
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11:05 a.m.
President Donald Trump says it would be a “good thing” for North Korea and the world if he and Kim Jong Un become friends.
But he immediately cast doubt on whether that could happen. Trump has spoken forcefully against North Korea and its nuclear threat while traveling in Asia.
Trump tweeted about the North Korean leader on Saturday, saying he had tried “so hard” to be Kim’s friend and that “maybe someday that will happen!”
Asked at a news conference in Hanoi about the tweet, Trump said a friendship with Kim “might be a strange thing to happen but it’s certainly a possibility.”
Trump says he doesn’t know that friendship will develop, but says it would be “very, very nice if it did.”
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10:55 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he believes in the U.S. intelligence agencies despite his past skepticism about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The president says during a joint news conference with Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang that the U.S. intelligence agencies are “currently led by fine people.” He adds, “I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.”
Trump’s comments come a day after he bashed the former heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies as “political hacks” and accused Democrats of trying to sabotage relations between the two countries.
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10:40 a.m.
President Donald Trump is reiterating that “all responsible nations” must act to help stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
Trump says at a joint news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, that “we want progress, not provocation” and “we want stability, not chaos.” Trump says the U.S. wants peace and not war.
North Korea has been a focal point of Trump’s trip to Asia. He is speaking at a news conference with Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang.
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9:35 a.m.
President Donald Trump is offering to serve as a mediator on the South China Sea territorial disputes as he meets with the president of Vietnam.
Trump is telling President Tran Dai Quang he knows Vietnam has had a dispute with China over the strategic waterways.
Trump says he’s a “very good mediator and a very good arbitrator” and willing to help.
Trump was speaking to Quang at the start of their meetings in Hanoi. Trump says North Korea “continues to be a problem” and he’s hopeful that Chinese President Xi Jinping will “be a tremendous help.” Trump says he also hopes that Russia will “be a tremendous help.”
Trump says they’ll also talk about trade. He says the U.S. will “be treated fairly,” adding, “past administrations didn’t understand trade.”
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9:15 a.m.
President Donald Trump is promising a “tremendous amount of trade” with Vietnam as he arrives at the presidential palace for his meeting with Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang.
Trump and Quang spoke briefly to reporters after the U.S. president arrived at the presidential palace in Hanoi on a rainy morning. Trump says they’ll be conducting “billions and billions” of dollars in trade.
The two leaders were greeted by young children waving U.S. and Vietnamese flags and then paused as a band played the two countries’ national anthems.
Trump is in Hanoi for a brief state visit and will hold a joint news conference with Quang. He’ll depart for the Philippines later Sunday for a pair of summits that will close out his trip to Asia.
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8:10 a.m. Sunday
President Donald Trump is bashing the “haters and fools” he says are questioning his efforts to improve relations with Russia.
Trump, in the final days of a lengthy Asia trip, shared his thoughts in a series of tweets Sunday in Hanoi, Vietnam.
He accused critics of “playing politics” and hurting the country.
The day before, Trump had told reporters that Russia President Vladimir Putin has again denied meddling in the 2016 election. Trump did not make clear whether he believed Putin but did make clear that he did not want to revisit the issue.
Trump has suggested that the ongoing probe into contacts between his campaign and the Russians was hurting the U.S. relationship with Moscow and could hinder efforts to solve crises like Syria and North Korea.
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8:05 a.m. Sunday
President Donald Trump is exchanging schools yard taunts with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
Trump says in a tweet from Vietnam: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me “old,” when I would NEVER call him “short and fat?”“
Trump goes on to say sarcastically, “Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend” and says that, “maybe someday that will happen!”
Trump has been working to rally global pressure against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program on a trip to Asia. That includes a stern speech delivered in South Korea.
Kim’s government responded to that speech by calling Trump an “old lunatic.”
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12:50 a.m. Sunday
President Donald Trump is back on the defensive over Russian election meddling and is accusing Democrats of trying to sabotage U.S.-Russia relations.
Speaking to reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin vehemently insisted once again that Moscow had not interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.
The Republican president declined to say whether he believed Putin but made clear he wasn’t interested in dwelling on the issue.
Trump is in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a brief state visit. He’ll depart for the Philippines later Sunday for a pair of summits that will close out his trip.
Trump and Putin did not have a formal meeting while they were in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but the two spoke informally several times on the event’s sidelines.
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11:15 p.m. Saturday
The Kremlin’s spokesman says Vladimir Putin flatly denied any Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election during a short meeting with President Donald Trump.
The Russian president and Trump met Saturday on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific conference in Vietnam.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling reporters: “Trump really raised the topic of so-called interference in U.S. elections.
Peskov says, “Putin categorically rejected even the hypothetical possibility that Russia could have in some way interfered in the U.S. electoral process.”
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11:05 p.m.
The White House Correspondents Association is voicing concerns about press access during President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia.
Reporters and photographers traveling with the president were barred from covering any of the events at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the coastal city of Danang on Saturday.
Reporters have also voiced concerns that Trump declined to take questions in China, though he has held press conferences in Japan and South Korea and spoke to reporters at length aboard Air Force One Saturday.
Margaret Talev, the correspondents association president, says in a statement the group is “concerned that access on this trip has eroded more significantly” and that “notice about changes or new coverage restrictions has often come with too short of notice to be able to react effectively.”
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8:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump is praising Vietnam in brief remarks before a state dinner, calling the nation “one of the great miracles of the world.”
He says the United States and Vietnam have “come a long way,” in an apparent reference to the Vietnam War.
Trump added that “there is nothing more impressive” than the success of the country. He spoke during a state dinner featuring local flavors.
On the menu: steamed rice powder rolls “with fluffy pemmican”; shrimp rolled in fried egg; a seafood soup made with fish maw, shrimp, scallop and shark fin; and Dong Tao chicken rolled with lotus and mushrooms.
Besides dinner, Trump is scheduled for talks with Vietnamese leaders before heading to the Philippines, his last stop on the trip.
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7:25 p.m.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday issued its first official statement on President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia, slamming Trump for trying to denuclearize the North.
The ministry said that Trump’s trip “is a warmonger’s trip for confrontation with our country, trying to remove our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.”
It accused Trump of trying to demonize North Korea, keep it apart from the international community and undermine its government.
The ministry said, “Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance. On the contrary, all this makes us more sure that our choice to promote economic construction at the same time as building up our nuclear force is all the more righteous, and it pushes us to speed up the effort to complete our nuclear force.”
North Korea is not known to have tested any of its missiles or nuclear devices since Sept. 15, a relative lull after a brisk series of tests earlier this year.
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7:20 p.m.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is brushing off recent reports that the U.S. commerce secretary had interest in a company that does business with a major Russian company with possible ties to Putin relatives.
Reports this week said Wilbur Ross is a shareholder in a shipping company that relies on the Russian company Sibur for much of its revenue. A man reported to be one of Putin’s sons-in-law is believed to be a major Sibur shareholder.
Putin said Saturday that “This is nothing more than business. It never had and does not have any relation with politics.”
Putin also rejected any Russian connection to the recently indicted former campaign manager of President Donald Trump, Paul Manafort.
Manafort is charged with offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent while advising the party of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-friendly Ukrainan president who was ousted amid massive street protests in 2014.
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6:55 p.m.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the lack of a formal meeting with President Donald Trump at a conference in Vietnam reflects continuing tense relations between their countries.
Putin and Trump had several brief exchanges Friday night and Saturday as world leaders gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. They did not have a formal, one-on-one meeting.
Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying that the lack of a formal meeting shows that U.S.-Russia relations have “not yet emerged from the state of crisis.”
But he was also quoted as blaming the absence of a sit-down on scheduling conflicts and “certain matters of the protocol” that couldn’t be worked out.
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5:50 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he didn’t see Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh AH’-bay) take a tumble on the golf course.
But he says, if it was Abe, “I’m very impressed because (Abe is) better than any gymnast I’ve ever seen.”
Trump made the remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One as it headed toward Hanoi, Vietnam, for meetings and a state banquet.
Japan’s TV Tokyo aired footage of a player identified as Abe trying repeatedly to hit his ball out of a steep bunker. As he finally made the shot, Trump began walking away, and Abe ran up the side of the bunker to catch up.
But just as the 63-year-old prime minister stepped onto the grass, he slipped, making a backward flip down into the sand. He quickly stood up and picked up his cap.
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5:35 p.m.
President Donald Trump says Russia President Vladimir Putin once again denied meddling in the 2016 election during their conversations Saturday at a summit in Vietnam.
And Trump still won’t say definitively whether he believes Putin.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that every time Putin sees him he says: “I didn’t do that.”
Says Trump: “And I believe, I really believe that when he tells me that he means it.”
Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win. Multiple investigations are also under way to determine whether Trump campaign officials colluded with them.
Trump dismissed the heads of those agencies as “political hacks.” He says there’s plenty of reason to be suspicious of their findings.
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5:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for creating an “artificial barrier” to U.S.-Russian relations by accusing Russia of meddling in the 2016 election.
Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Hanoi that the allegations, which he’s dismissed as a witch hunt in the past, are damaging his ability to work with Russia. And he says that’s putting lives at stake.
He says the “artificial barrier” gets in the way of putting global pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Without that obstacle, Trump says, “we could really be helped a lot, tremendously with Russia having to do with North Korea.”
He goes on to say that, “If we can save many, many, many lives by making a deal with Russia having to do with Syria, and then ultimately getting Syria solved and getting Ukraine solved and doing other things, having a good relationship with Russia’s a great, great thing. And this artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way,” he says, adding that, “people will die because of it.”
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