Apple CEO Tim Cook has defended his decision to join tech leaders in a private meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump last week.
In a message to employees, the executive said he’d “never found being on the sidelines a successful place to be”, TechCrunch reported.
“The way that you influence these issues is to be in the arena. So whether it’s in this country, or the European Union, or in China or South America, we engage. And we engage when we agree and we engage when we disagree.” Cook said.
“You change things by showing everyone why your way is the best. In many ways, it’s a debate of ideas,” he added.
Cook went on to write that Apple is particularly concerned about privacy, security, education and environment policy.
He was joined by Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Larry Page in a roundtable discussion with Trump in New York.
Relations between Trump and Apple soured after the billionaire businessman called for supporters to boycott the firm over its refusal to give the FBI access to the San Bernardino killer’s iPhone.
Trump has also criticised Apple for manufacturing products overseas, saying he was going to get them to “build their damn computers [...] in this country.”
But Apple isn’t the only firm to have found itself in Trump’s sights. The former reality TV star reserved his fiercest criticism for Amazon.
In a tweet, Trump wrote: “If Amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO replied: “Finally trashed by Donald Trump [...] Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket #sendDonaldtospace.”