Had a very positive conversation with Putin on Venezuela, says Trump

US President Donald Trump has said that he had a very positive conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Venezuela, emphasising that Moscow was not looking at all to get involved in the oil-rich South American nation.

Trump on Friday spoke with Putin for about an hour, during which Venezuela was one of the major topics of discussion.

I had a very good talk with President Putin -- probably over an hour. We talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he'd like to see something positive happen for Venezuela, Trump told reporters.

 

Stating that he too wanted something positive for Venezuela, Trump said the US was willing to help the nation with humanitarian aid as people were starving.

We want to get them some humanitarian aid. Right now, people are starving. They have no water, they have no food. This is one of the richest countries in the world 20 years ago, and now they don't have food and they don't have water for their people. So we want to help on a humanitarian basis, he said.

Responding to questions, Trump said the alleged Russian interference in the US election was not discussed.

We didn't discuss that. Really, we didn't discuss it. We discussed five or six things. We went into detail on various things, especially, I would say, the nuclear. Especially, maybe, Venezuela. We talked about North Korea at great length, and pretty much that's it, he said.

The two leaders also discussed trade.

We intend to do a lot of trade with Russia. We do some right now. It's up a little bit. But he'd like to do trade and we'd like to do trade, he said.

Getting along with Russia and China, getting along with all of them is very good thing, not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's a positive thing. We want to have good relationships with every country, he added.