'We don't trust Russia, Vladimir Putin,' says Nikki Haley after Donald Trump receives criticism for Helsinki summit

Washington: The Unites States will never trust Russia or its President Vladimir Putin, America’s envoy to the Unites Nations Nikki Haley has said amidst an uproar over President Donald Trump’s alleged bonhomie with his Russian counterpart. [caption id=“attachment_4599291” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of United States envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley. AP[/caption] Trump, who met with Putin in Helsinki last week, has been slammed by the US media and political opponents for failing to defend the American intelligence community during a much-talked about press conference with Russian president after their first summit. The US Ambassador to the UN told Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) News, “We don’t trust Russia, we don’t trust Putin, we never will. They’re never going to be our friend. That’s just a fact.” At the same time, Haley supported the move to have talks with the Russians. “What I do think is, whether it’s the president sitting down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or whether the president sits down with Putin, those are things that have to happen. You can’t get to the end of the other side if you don’t have those conversations,” Haley said in response to a question. She came out in support of Trump’s one-on-one meeting with the world leaders. “He (Trump) did that with Kim. He’s done it with other leaders. He did it with President Xi Jinping of China and that’s just his way. He feels like he can get more out of them if he goes one-on-one like that. It’s his style. It’s the way he does it,” she added. You’re going to see that their next meetings are going to have people in them, the working groups are going to come together, all of those things. But he’s always thought just to create that genuine reality of the two of them talking, he feels like he needs to do it face-to-face," said Haley, the first-ever Cabinet-ranking Indian-American official.