The former president has held a string of similar meetings with other current and former world leaders.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continued aggressions in the Indo-Pacific were a recent topic of conversation between former President Donald Trump and former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the latter has revealed.
In a May 15 social media post, Mr. Morrison said he was “pleased to meet with” President Trump the night before at Trump Tower in New York.
“It was nice to catch up again, especially given the pile-on he is currently dealing with in the U.S.,” he said, referencing the four criminal indictments and other civil lawsuits the former president is currently fending off.
Mr. Morrison went on to say that they had discussed AUKUS—the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK, and the United States—and “the continuing assertions of China in the Indo-Pacific and the threats against Taiwan.”
“These were issues we discussed regularly when we were both in office,” he said. “Once again, the former President showed his true appreciation of the value he places on the Australia-U.S. alliance and the shared role of supporting what our friend, Shinzo Abe, called a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Mr. Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister in history, was assassinated on July 8, 2022.
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Mr. Morrison shared a photo of himself and President Trump from their reported meeting alongside the update.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
His visit also marks the latest in a series of private meetings President Trump has recently held with both current and former world leaders.
Last month, the former president met with Polish President Andrzej Duda, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, and former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. He also reportedly spoke with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the phone.
The high-profile meetings come amid the 45th president’s bid to defeat incumbent President Joe Biden and reclaim the White House this November.
By meeting with President Trump, some foreign leaders could be signaling who they think will emerge victorious from that dust-up.
But asked if he thought his visit with the presumptive GOP nominee might antagonize the Biden administration, President Duda rejected the idea.
“I am not afraid because presidents meet with their colleagues, especially those who used to hold the president’s office in their countries. This is a normal practice; there is nothing special about it,” he told reporters ahead of the April 17 meeting.
“The presidents also meet different politicians during their foreign visits. It is normal that when two countries have good relationships, they want to have good relations with different sides of the political scene.”
That view was echoed by U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who said there was nothing unusual about foreign leaders meeting with a presidential nominee.
“We have seen over the course of years of American elections where foreign governments engage with the nominees of major parties here, just as American diplomats and American leaders often engage with foreign opposition leaders,” he said.
The former president maintains that the criminal prosecutions he is facing are all part of a scheme directed by President Biden to thwart his presidential bid.
The president and other administration officials have denied those allegations.
Naveen Athrappully, Janice Hisle, and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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