Trump :US President vows better Russia ties, reassures NATO allies

Trump's friendly stance toward Putin, whom France and Germany both accuse of seeking to undermine Western unity, is being scrutinized since he won the US election in November.

President Donald Trump vowed Saturday to improve floundering ties with Russia, while also reassuring close US allies he supports NATO.

Amid growing international alarm over Trump's halt to refugees and travellers from Muslim

countries, French President Francois Hollande warned of the "economic and political

consequences" of the American leader's protectionist stance.

The comments came one day after Trump signed a sweeping executive order to suspend the

arrival of refugees for at least 120 days and bars visas for travellers from seven Muslim

majority countries for the next three months.

Trump's friendly stance toward Putin, whom France and Germany both accuse of seeking to

undermine Western unity, is being scrutinized since he won the US election in November.

The White House hailed the call with Putin as a "significant start" to better US-Russia tie

while the Kremlin said the pair agreed to develop relations "as equals" and to establish "real 

coordination" against the Islamic State group.

Trump took office last week with US-Russia relations at new Cold War-level lows amid

 accusations by American intelligence agencies that the Kremlin hacked Democratic Party

 emails as part of a pro-Trump campaign to influence November's election.

The new Republican president -- who has raised the prospect of easing sanctions imposed

 against Russia after its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 -- has cast doubt

 on whether Russia meddled in the election.

In a flurry of calls that began early in the morning and rounded out an already frantically

paced week, Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor

 Angela Merkel, Putin, Hollande and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The conversations gave the US president an early opportunity to explain new policies that

have baffled and unnerved much of the rest of the world -- particularly his order to temporarily


halt all refugee arrivals and those of travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria 

and Yemen.

European leaders are also concerned about Trump's virulent criticism of NATO -- he has

dubbed the transatlantic military alliance "obsolete" -- at a time when it stands as the main

defense against Putin.

But in his call with Merkel, Trump agreed on NATO's "fundamental importance," the White

House said.

"The leaders recognized that NATO must be capable of confronting 21st century threats and

that our common defense requires appropriate investment in military capabilities to ensure all

allies are contributing their fair share to our collective security," it added.

The United States provides significant funding to NATO, and Trump has called on other

member nations to step up their contributions.

'Extreme vetting'

Trump's pronouncement on Muslim immigration makes good on one of his most controversial

campaign promises to subject travelers from Islamic countries to "extreme vetting," which he

declared would make America safe from "radical Islamic terrorists."

"It's working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over," Trump told reporters

 after travelers from those countries were stopped from boarding US-bound planes, triggering

angry protests.

"We're going to have a very, very strict ban and we're going to have extreme vetting which

we should have had in this country for many years."

Hundreds of people protested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, chanting 

"Let them in, let them in!"

The new protocols specifically bar Syrian refugees from the United States indefinitely, or until

the president himself decides that they no longer pose a threat.

Detentions underway

US authorities wasted no time implementing Trump's order, detaining travelers arriving at

American airports within hours of the measures being signed.

The New York Times reported that airport officials as early as Friday night began detaining

travelers, some of whom were already aboard their flights when Trump announced his

executive order.

The order faced its first lawsuit, signaling a tough battle ahead in US courts.

The legal challenge was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy

groups after two Iraqi men were detained late Friday at JFK.

'Greatest nation'

One of the men, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked for the US government in Iraq for 10

years.

"America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world," Darweesh said after his

release

Mark Doss, a supervising attorney at the International Refugee Project at the Urban Justice

 Center, said Darweesh's detention and release showed the new policy was being

implemented "with no guidance."

Immigration advocacy groups issued an appeal for demonstrations at JFK airport, which

spread rapidly over social media.

The ban has also triggered a political backlash.

"To my colleagues: don't ever again lecture me on American moral leadership if you chose to

 be silent today," Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, tweeted late Friday.

His tweet was accompanied by the now iconic photograph of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old

Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a beach in Turkey in 2015 after a failed attempt to

flee Syria's brutal war to join relatives in Canada.

International groups and civil liberties organizations have roundly condemned Trump's orders.

"'Extreme vetting' is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," said Anthony

Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Romero said Trump's order breached the US constitution's ban on religious discrimination by

choosing countries with Muslim majorities for tougher treatment.

Many foreign leaders said they were aghast over the new US policy.

Iran answered in kind by saying it would ban Americans from entering the country, calling

 Trump's action insulting.

But the US leader did get backing from Czech President Milos Zeman, who praised him for

being "concerned with the safety of his citizens."