Trump held his first news conference in nearly six months Wednesday, amid explosive allegations over his ties to Russia, a little more than a week before his inauguration. (Photo credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
President-elect Donald Trump, in a fresh peek at his foreign policy views, says he is open to lifting sanctions against Russia and is not committed to a longstanding agreement with China over Taiwan. Beijing swiftly responded to the latter remark, calling any revision of the longstanding “One China” policy “non-negotiable.”
Trump’s comments came in an hour-long interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday in which he said he will keep the sanctions on Russia in place “for a period of time” but is open to lifting them if Moscow cooperates on issues of mutual interest.
While several sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea, the latest measures, as well as the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, were imposed by the Obama administration last month in response to evidence Russia hacked Democratic Party officials during the presidential election.
Trump’s latest views on Russia comes only days after CNN’s report regarding classified documents presented to Obama and Trump during an intelligence briefing last week that contained unsubstantiated and potentially compromising information about the president-elect.
“If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?” Trump said in the Journal interview. He added, however, he would keep the latest sanctions in place “at least for a period of time.”
Trump acknowledged for the first time this week that he accepts Russia was behind the hacking. But he questioned whether officials were leaking information about their meetings with him, warning that would be a “tremendous blot” on their record.
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SOURCE: Doug Stanglin and David Jackson
USA TODAY
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