US President Donald Trump was returning to Washington after a face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, the final day of a trip to Asia that provided an opportunity for the leaders of the world’s two largest economies to stabilise relations after months of turmoil over trade issues.
The meeting lasted a little over 100 minutes, with the two leaders emerging out the front door and talking briefly.
They shook hands, and Trump appeared to say something into Xi’s ear just before the Chinese leader entered his own limousine. Trump was shortly back aboard Air Force One to return to the US.
Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs since returning to the White House for a second term, combined with China’s retaliatory limits on exports of rare earth elements, gave the meeting newfound urgency.
There was a mutual recognition that neither side wants to risk blowing up the world economy in ways that could jeopardise their own country’s fortunes.
Aboard Air Force One on his way to South Korea, Trump told reporters he may reduce tariffs that he placed on China earlier this year related to its role in making fentanyl.
“I expect to be lowering that because I believe that they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation,” Trump said, later adding, “The relationship with China is very good.”
But after the meeting in Busan, South Korea, a port city approximately 76 kilometres south of Gyeongju, the main venue for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Xi says US and China should be ‘partners and friends’
Earlier, the Chinese leader spoke for longer than Trump in his opening remarks, saying, “it feels very warm seeing you again because it’s been many years.”
“We do not always see eye to eye with each other,” Xi said through a translator, adding that “it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.”
However, he said, China and the U.S. “are fully able to help each other succeed and prosper together.”
Trump and Xi convene their bilateral meeting
Shortly after their handshake, Trump and Xi moved to a room to hold their talks.
“It’s an honour to be with a friend of mine,” Trump said of Xi. He said the two will be having some discussions, but “I think we’ve already agreed to a lot of things.”
Accompanying Trump were trade representative Jamieson Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China.
