During his first joint meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, US President Donald Trump has apparently pushed aside the prime minister of Montenegro in an effort to move to the front of the group.
While walking with the NATO leaders on Thursday, Trump came up from behind and then shoved Prime Minister Dusko Markovic to get to the front of the gathering.
Trump is in Brussels to attend his first NATO summit alongside the 27 other members of the military alliance.
In April, Trump backed the expansion of NATO by approving Montenegro’s accession to the Western military alliance, in what many observers view as a message to Russia.
The Balkan nation will officially become the 29th member of NATO if the Netherlands and Spain approve the accession later this year.
At the NATO summit on Thursday, Trump also did a forceful handshake with newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron.
Trump and Macron barely know each other but the US president gripped his right hand firmly and was not letting it go away.
About three weeks after his inauguration on January 20, Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House.
Trump would not let go of Abe’s hand, yanking him back several times, which caused the prime minister to show his discomfort.
Trump, seemingly indifferent to the rather dispirited reaction of Abe, tweeted later, “I shook hands, but I grabbed him and hugged him because that’s the way we feel. We have a very, very good bond — very, very good chemistry.”
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