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Updated: Jul 15, 2018 21:06 IST

US President Donald Trump named Russia, the EU and China as “foes,” in an interview aired Sunday on the eve of his summit with Vladimir Putin.

“Well I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade,” Trump said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union but they’re a foe. Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitive,” he said in the interview with CBS Evening News’s Jeff Glor, which was conducted on Saturday.

Trump repeated his previous assertion that the European Union has “really taken advantage of us on trade.”

He also again complained that “it’s a very bad thing for Germany” that the country depends on Russian gas, for which it is paying “billions” to Moscow.

The US has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum against the EU and other allies, sparking retaliation.

A trade war is also underway with China after the US implemented tariffs for what it calls unfair trade practices by Beijing.