‘Trump reached out to Moscow despite virtually entire Washington in opposition’
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s first telephone conversation indicates a new chapter will be opened in US-Russia relations, as, by reaching out to Moscow, the US leader has shown he’s capable of overriding internal opposition, Daniel McAdams told RT.
Trump “certainly deserves some credit for reaching out to President Putin,” as he has had to face tough opposition in the process, said McAdams, the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
President Trump has “made good on his promise to attempt better relations with Russia. In that he has virtually the entire Washington against him,” McAdams said, adding that he believes Putin and Trump “actually will get along quite well.”
Although, the overall idea of the US’ involvement in Syria is highly questionable, Trump’s intention to coordinate the fight against terrorism with Russia there at least means, “apparently, the US is not going to be working against Russia, which would bring us closer to war,” he said.
However, McAdams added that he is “not super thrilled about Trump escalating the US military actions in the Middle East.”
Ahead of the phone conversation with Putin, Trump said that it was “every early” to talk about lifting anti-Russia sanctions.
In the analyst’s view, Trump, as a businessman himself, fully understands the harmful impact of sanctions on the US economy.
In Saturday’s phone conversation, the two leaders “stressed the importance of rebuilding mutually beneficial trade and economic ties between the two countries’ business communities,” the Kremlin press service said.
“I think it’s very positive that they talked about trade. The sanctions on Russia hurt the United States – it hurts the average American businessmen and not just the top corporations,” he said, adding that even Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, “was a victim of sanctions on Russia.”
“Hopefully, this will start things off on the right foot,” McAdams said.
‘Two strong leaders who want to make things happen’
Retired US army General Paul Vallely echoed McAdam’s opinion, saying that he hopes the US is “going to have a new relationship with Russia, despite negatives coming out of the likes of Senator McCain and others.”
“It’s all going to be very positive,” he said, adding that the media should focus more on the positive effect of Trump’s actions instead of disproportionally covering protests.
The telephone conversation is only a first step on the road to a comprehensive discussion that, in Vallely’s opinion, is likely to take place in the near future.
“You have two strong leaders that want to make things happen in a positive matter. They are going to talk about economics, about Syria, probably ten other type of discussion items to further relationship,” Vallely said.
Though it appears that the sanctions the US has imposed on Russia were omitted from the agenda of their first conversation, they are eventually going to come up and might be lifted, Vallely said, as he believes they are not in line with the strategy of mutual rapprochement.
“My feeling on sanctions… I don’t think it is going to be positive in the future relationship with Russia,” he said, adding that “they probably should be done away with.”
Despite the failed reset initiated by the Obama administration, which was already a distant memory by the end of his second term despite high initial expectations, Vallely believes that Trump is a leader who will follow through on his pledges.
“Because you have a new leader in America, somebody who understands how to make a deal, how to negotiate,” Vallely said.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
