Trump holds telephone talks with Putin

US President-elect Donald Trump has held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin says.

President-elect Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump Source: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke on the phone on Monday evening and agreed on the need to normalise ties between Washington and Moscow, the Kremlin said.

They noted "the extremely unsatisfactory state of Russian-US relations at present" and "declared the need for active joint work to normalise them," a statement said.

Obama urges Trump to reach out

US President Barack Obama said Monday that he had urged his successor Donald Trump to reach out to those Americans left upset or fearful by the Republican billionaire's surprise election win.

"I emphasized to him that, look, in an election like this that was so hotly contested and so divided, gestures matter," Obama said, after protests in several US cities

"I did say to him, as I've said publicly, that because of the nature of the campaigns and the bitterness and ferocity of the campaigns, it's really important to try to send some signals of unity, and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign.

The US president also called on the Democratic Party to "compete everywhere" in future elections and said Trump's win emphasized the importance of exercising one's right to vote

"I don't know how many times we have to relearn this lesson, because we ended up having 43 percent of the country not voting who were eligible to vote, but it makes a difference," he told a press conference.

Share
Published 15 November 2016 7:19am
Updated 15 November 2016 8:07pm
Source: AFP

Tags

Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world