Australian prime minister says Trump treated him like family

Canberra: Australia’s prime minister has described his first meeting with President Donald Trump as “more family than formal,” as the Australian ended a brief visit to New York planned to set the tone of bilateral relations with the Republican administration.

Trump said on Thursday that his first telephone conversation with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on January 28 “got a little bit testy” when the president reluctantly agreed to honour President Barack Obama’s promise to take up to 1,250 mainly Muslim refugees off Australia’s hands.

But Trump denied media reports that the tone was any harsher than that.

Turnbull said yesterday he enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the president face-to-face.

PTI