Donald Trump and Leo Varadkar greeted with a namaste gesture instead of shaking hands as they met at the White House.
The two leaders acted on official health advice by making a bow gesture.
The president said he “felt weird” with the non-contact gesture as he spoke from the Oval Office.
“We didn’t shake hands today and we looked at each other and said, ‘what are we going to do?’," Mr Trump said.
“It’s a sort of a weird feeling.”
He added: “I just got back from India and I didn’t shake any hands there and it was very easy.”
He referred to traditional greetings used in India and Japan, adding that the countries were “ahead of the curve”.
Mr Trump added: “We looked at each other – there was also a lot of press staring at us, right – saying, are we supposed to shake hands? And when his group of very smart representatives came in, who I know, it’s a very strange feeling.
“I was never a big hand-shaker, as you probably heard, but once you become a politician, shaking hands is very normal.
“It’s a very strange feeling when people that you know and like and they walk up and just say ‘hi’.”
Mr Varadkar added: “It always feel impersonal or you are being rude but we just can’t afford to think like that for the next few weeks.”
