French President Emmanuel Macron has said his clenched handshake with Donald Trump was “not innocent” and was a “moment of truth”.<\/p>\n
The awkward encounter saw each grip the other’s hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white .<\/p>\n
Mr Macron told French media he had wanted to “show he would not make small concessions, not even symbolic ones, but also not overdo things”.<\/p>\n
The leaders met in Brussels on Thursday ahead of a Nato summit.<\/p>\n
As their vigorous handshake continued over several seconds, Mr Macron and Mr Trump also looked each other fixedly in the eyes until the US president attempted to disengage.<\/p>\n
Mr Macron told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper his approach to the encounter had been about getting respect.<\/p>\n
“Donald Trump, the Turkish president or the Russian president see things in terms of power relationships, which doesn’t bother me,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe in diplomacy through public criticism but in my bilateral dialogues I don’t let anything pass. That is how you get respect.”<\/p>\n
Pressing the flesh<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Trump’s hand contact with foreign leaders has been closely scrutinised since he took power.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French President Emmanuel Macron has said his clenched handshake with Donald Trump was “not innocent” and was a “moment of truth”. The awkward encounter saw each grip the other’s hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white . Mr Macron told French media he had wanted to “show he would not make small concessions, not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[3,7518,7110],"yoast_head":"\n\n