- Title: Peru's Kuczynski talks Trump, Venezuela, trade during Princeton speech
- Date: 25th February 2017
- Summary: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 25, 2017) (REUTERS) PRESIDENT OF PERU, PEDRO PABLO KUCZYNSKI INTRODUCED ON STAGE AUDIENCE APPLAUDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF PERU, PEDRO PABLO KUCZYNSKI, saying: "Yesterday I was in the White House with President Trump and various people you have read about in the newspapers. And we started chatting a little bit, and you know, he is a real diplomat, and he said: 'How old are you? You don't look a day over 90. ' Actually, what he really said was 'You don't look a day over 60.'So we had an interesting chat about Latin America, and that's really what I would like to talk about today a little bit." WIDE VIEW OF KUCZYSNKI SPEAKING ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF PERU, PEDRO PABLO KUCZYNSKI, saying: "In the case of Venezuela, it is a huge problem. We had a meeting with Latin American leaders and recently with the king of Spain in Cartagena. And I told the minister of foreign affairs of Venezuela, Mrs. Delcy [referring to Venezuela Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez] that her government is unsustainable and it has to go. And this was obviously not very popular with her. But what is happening now is that we have to get all the governments aware that a problem of one significant country is a problem for everybody. And that's what is hard to do. Because you are going to have boat people going to Curacao, and you are going to have people marching into Colombia, you are going to have planes arriving in relatively nice places like Peru, so we have to all work together and it is very hard to do. The inter-American organizations like the OAS and so on, basically have no muscle, no clout and they can't do much about it. And the way to tackle the problem I think is to be ready to help. And that is what I told President Trump. You have got to help with medicine, food, all sorts of things and be ready to go. The present government of Venezuela is not interested in that. But I think it will come around because it is not a sustainable situation." AUDIENCE LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF PERU, PEDRO PABLO KUCZYNSKI, saying: "There is an effort on-going right now to do basically an APEC treaty, and the U.S. is obviously welcome to that, but it would extend as far as India. Those negotiations have started, The TPP had one defect, and that is deliberately excluding the U.S. and Korea in the first stage at least. So it's hard to exclude China, you have got to include China. Now China has its own protectionism, and that has to change as part of this effort. And then we will add obviously Australia, New Zealand with whom we are already negotiating." WIDE VIEW OF PODIUM KUCZYNSKI LEAVING
- Embargoed: 11th March 2017 17:25
- Keywords: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Donald Trump Venezuela China trade
- Location: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- City: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001650PSG3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski continued his U.S. trip on Saturday (February 25) speaking at Princeton University, where he addressed his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, the political crisis in Venezuela and trade relations with China.
Kuczynski spoke during an alumni meeting at his alma mater, where he earned a master's degree in the early 1960's.
He joked about his meeting with Trump.
"Yesterday I was in the White House with President Trump and various people you have read about in the newspapers. And we started chatting a little bit, and you know, he is a real diplomat, and he said: 'How old are you? You don't look a day over 90. ' Actually, what he really said was 'You don't look a day over 60.'So we had an interesting chat about Latin America, and that's really what I would like to talk about today a little bit," he said.
Later in the speech, he turned toward the issue of Venezuela, which is currently in the throes of an economic and political crisis. The opposition is calling for new elections to remove the administration of President Nicolas Maduro while Venezuelan citizens are suffering critical shortages of food and medicine. Kuczynski called the situation and the government "unsustainable".
"In the case of Venezuela, it is a huge problem. We had a meeting with Latin American leaders and recently with the king of Spain in Cartagena. And I told the minister of foreign affairs of Venezuela, Mrs. Delcy [referring to Venezuela Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez] that her government is unsustainable and it has to go. And this was obviously not very popular with her. But what is happening now is that we have to get all the governments aware that a problem of one significant country is a problem for everybody. And that's what is hard to do. Because you are going to have boat people going to Curacao, and you are going to have people marching into Colombia, you are going to have planes arriving in relatively nice places like Peru, so we have to all work together and it is very hard to do. The inter-American organizations like the OAS and so on, basically have no muscle, no clout and they can't do much about it. And the way to tackle the problem I think is to be ready to help. And that is what I told President Trump. You have got to help with medicine, food, all sorts of things and be ready to go. The present government of Venezuela is not interested in that. But I think it will come around because it is not a sustainable situation," he said.
Kuczynski also addressed the issue of trade relations following the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He said countries are working on a new kind of trade group that will likely include China.
"There is an effort on-going right now to do basically an APEC treaty, and the U.S. is obviously welcome to that, but it would extend as far as India. Those negotiations have started, The TPP had one defect, and that is deliberately excluding the U.S. and Korea in the first stage at least. So it's hard to exclude China, you have got to include China. Now China has its own protectionism, and that has to change as part of this effort. And then we will add obviously Australia, New Zealand with whom we are already negotiating," he said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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