Following this photo of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s awkward handshake with President of the United States Donald Trump going viral, a video of the two world leaders’ first face-to-face meeting at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Germany has been released.
In the video, PM Lee can be seen fidgeting, moving his hands and legs and looking around shiftily as the POTUS reaffirms the close relationship the US shares with Singapore. He appeared uncomfortable and almost nervous as the POTUS addressed the press, before stating that Singapore hopes to do a lot more under the President’s administration.
[fvplayer src=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za8FArAo8ak”]
The transcript of President Trump and PM Lee’s short conversation was released on the White House’s website:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. The Prime Minister of Singapore — we’re very close, the relationship is very close, and we expect to do some excellent things together in many ways. And we have a very big relationship now. It will probably get much bigger. And I thank you very much. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER LEE: Well, thank you, Mr. President. We have many things going on with the U.S. and we hope to do more under your administration.
The kind of relationship Singapore will have with the US remains to be seen as President Trump formally withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact – a deal which PM Lee and former US president Barack Obama strongly believed in.
Meanwhile, photos showing PM Lee’s awkwardness around other world leaders are going viral on social media. His handshake, especially, has been trending online:
