President Donald Trump defended his work to cooperate with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview on Wednesday, saying that "it doesn't make sense not to have some kind of a relationship."
In an interview with CBN News, Trump discussed his nearly two-hour meeting with Putin at the annual G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany last Friday. The meeting resulted in a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in Syria, which Russia and the United States are on opposite sides of.
Trump explained that he sees his relationship with Putin as proceeding from their respective responsibilities to their countries.
"Well, he wants what's good for Russia, and I want what's good for the United States," Trump said. "And I think in a case like Syria where we can get together, do a ceasefire, and there are many other cases where getting along can be a very positive thing, but always Putin is going to want Russia and Trump is going to want the United States and that's the way it is."
Trump emphasized, however, that there was no reason that he and Putin should not be able to "get along."
"People said, 'Oh they shouldn't get along.' Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well. We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn't make sense not to have some kind of a relationship," Trump said.
Trump also talked up the ongoing ceasefire in Syria that came out of the meeting.
"One thing we did is we had a ceasefire in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous bedlam and tremendous killing. And, by the way, this is now four days. The ceasefire has held for four days. Those [previous] ceasefires haven't held at all. That's because President Putin and President Trump made the deal, and it's held," he said.
"I think a lot of things came out of that meeting but I do believe it's important to have a dialogue, and if you don't have a dialogue, it's a lot of problems for our country and for their country. I think we need dialogue. We need dialogue with everybody," Trump said.