Trump hails alliance at dinner date with Morrison

Over dinner, Scott Morrison invited Donald Trump to watch golf’s Presidents Cup in Melbourne | WATCH

Scott Morrison has invited Donald Trump to Australia to watch golf’s Presidents Cup in Melbourne in December.

Mr Trump said he would like to come but admitted it wouldn’t be easy to get away.

“It might not be easy,’’ Mr Trump said. “But I’d like to. That’s a big deal. That’s going to be great.”

The exchange came as the two men sat down to dinner on the eve of the G20 summit in Osaka, with the US President lauding the closeness of the Australian-US alliance

Mr Trump said America had always “worked together very closely” with Australia and the alliance was considered “one of our best”.

“We’re very proud of it. It’s one of our oldest and one of our best,” Mr Trump said.

“We were just talking about the battles that we fought together. These are big-name battles. And they were tough battles. And we won every one of them. So, it’s great to be with you.”

Asked if he recognised that his trade policies sometimes hurt his allies, Mr Trump said his administration had “been very good to our allies”.

“We work with our allies. We take care of our allies. Generally speaking, I’ve inherited massive trade deficits with our allies. But we also look at our allies.

“And I think Australia is a good example. We’ve worked together very closely — just recently, on a big trade situation. We had a little bit of a trade deal going, and it worked out very well for both of us.’’

Mr Trump opened his address at the Imperial Hotel Osaka by congratulating Mr Morrison on his election victory last month.

“He had a fantastic victory, as you know,’’ he told guests. “It didn’t surprise me, but he surprised a lot of other people. They called it an upset, but I don’t call it an upset. You probably didn’t. It’s a fantastic thing you did.’’

Earlier, Mr Morrison said the dinner with Mr Trump illustrated the closeness of the relationship between the two nations, as he again urged the US to resolve trade tensions with China.

“This meeting with the President and his senior team highlights the strength and candour of our relationship,” Mr Morrison said.

“From efforts to relieve the strains on our global trading system to greater digitalisation and the need for social media companies to step up to better protect our citizens, the US and Australia have significant roles to play.”