In Europe, and Russia, leaders await Trump era with bated breath
MOSCOW -- President-elect Donald Trump seemed to have offered a deal to Russia in remarks published over the weekend; nuclear disarmament in exchange for a lifting of U.S. sanctions against Moscow.
But Russia’s foreign minister has said that’s not how he read Mr.Trump’s words.
“I did not see there any deal to disarm in exchange for the lifting sanctions,” Sergey Lavrov said.
But as CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, Russia does expect to have a dialogue with the new administration on nuclear disarmament.
Lavrov also flatly denied rumours that there are already plans for an early Putin - Trump summit in Iceland, calling the idea “out of touch with reality.”
In Europe, Mr. Trump’s comments in the interview with the Times of London ruffled many political feathers --particularly his prediction that the European Union is likely to lose more members after Britain’s vote to “Brexit.”
Singling out German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Trump said she had made a catastrophic mistake in allowing so many refugees into the country.
Merkel’s response was diplomatic: “I think that we Europeans have our destiny in our own hands,” she said, adding that Germany would work with the new American president once he takes office.
President Francois Hollande of France pushed back a little harder, however, saying Europe has “no need” for outside advice to tell it what to do.
Overall, European leaders are holding back -- waiting to see beyond Mr. Trump’s words, to his actions as president.
The Danish foreign minister put it succinctly, saying he and his European colleagues were waiting to move “from Twitter diplomacy, to reality.”