Trump holds whirlwind meetings with world leaders at G20

President Trump spent the second day of the group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on a slew of meetings with global leaders including the leaders of Great Britain, China and Turkey.

The president began the day meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May. The two leaders reportedly discussed trade and counterterrorism initiatives.

“There is no country that could possibly be closer than our countries. And I just want to say thank you very much,” Trump said prior to the meeting, according to White House press pool reports.

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“We are working on a trade deal — a very, very big deal, a very powerful deal. Great for both countries.  And I think we’ll have that done very, very quickly,” he continued.

Trump also confirmed he still plans to visit London, despite reports he expressed concerns over possible protests surrounding his visit.

The U.K. has been rocked in recent weeks by terror attacks, as the country grapples with Brexit negotiations as well as a turbulent general election that left May clinging to power.

The issue of North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons program loomed over the summit, and was a topic of conversation between Trump and the leaders of countries in close proximity to the regime.

Trump met with Chinese Xi Jinping amid his criticism of China’s handling of the growing crisis in North Korea.

The president underscored the severity of the situation regarding North Korea, saying, “something has to be done about it.”

“It may take longer than I’d like, it may take longer that you’d like,” Trump said ahead of the bilateral meeting with Xi.

“But there will be success in the end one way or the other,” he continued.

Trump also discussed North Korea with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and praised Japan’s focus on the crisis.

“The prime minister is, I will say this, very, very focused on what’s going on with respect to North Korea.  So we will continue those discussions, and we appreciate you being here,” Trump said.

North Korea was also a topic of conversation between Trump and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, in addition to trade deals with the island nation.

“We’ve become friends, and we’re going to be doing a lot of deals together — trade deals.  We have our whole trade delegation here, and we will start doing a lot of trading with Indonesia.  We do very little business, relatively, now. But we are going to do a lot of business,” Trump said.

Trump also looked to strengthen ties with Singapore, saying ahead of his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that he expects the U.S. relationship with Singapore to “get much bigger.”

“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,” he said.

The Syrian Civil War loomed over the summit, and prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to request an unscheduled meeting with Trump.

“President Erdogan sought out President Trump for a brief, unplanned meeting on the sidelines of the G20,” the White House said. “The two leaders discussed the situation in Syria.”

Earlier in the day, Trump joined his daughter Ivanka at a meeting on women and entrepreneurship, which was also attended by May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trump pledged $50 million to the World Bank’s fund aimed at encouraging women to pursue entrepreneurship, saying the fund would transform “millions and millions of lives.”