Trump, Xi aides discussed autumn US-China leaders’ meeting, sources say
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US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at the G-20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON/BEIJING - Aides to Mr Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have discussed a potential meeting between the leaders during a trip by the US president to Asia later this year, according to two people familiar with the plans.
While plans for a meeting have not been finalised, discussions on both sides of the Pacific have included a possible stopover by Mr Trump around the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea or talks on the sidelines of the Oct 30-Nov 1 event, the people said.
Mr Trump has sought to lower tensions with Beijing in recent weeks after pausing a tit-for-tat tariff war that has upended global trade and supply chains.
China has also sought the attendance of international guests, including some from the United States, for a Sept 3 Beijing ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, said a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington in a briefing last week for reporters.
The Kremlin said on July 21 that it did not rule out the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Trump meeting in Beijing in September if Mr Trump decides to attend that ceremony. Mr Putin has confirmed his attendance.
“Diplomacy between heads of state plays an irreplaceable strategic leading role in Sino-US relations,” said Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun on July 21, declining to comment on a possible Trump-Xi meeting.
The White House declined to comment.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on July 21 there would be “talks in the very near future” between the countries.
“Trade is in a good place, and I think now we can start talking about other things. The Chinese, unfortunately ... are very large purchasers of sanctioned Iranian oil, sanctioned Russian oil,” he told CNBC.
He added: “We could also discuss the elephant in the room, which is this great rebalancing that the Chinese need to do.”
Mr Trump has sought to impose tariffs on virtually all foreign goods, which he says will stimulate domestic manufacturing and which critics say will make many consumer goods more expensive for Americans.
He has called for a universal base tariff rate of 10 per cent on goods imported from all countries, with higher rates for imports from some, including China. Imports from China have the highest tariff rate of 55 per cent.
Mr Trump has set a deadline of Aug 12 for the US and China to reach a durable tariff agreement.
The most recent high-level US-China meeting was on July 11, when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had what both described as a productive and positive meeting in Malaysia about how trade negotiations should proceed.
Mr Rubio said then that Mr Trump had been invited to China to meet with Mr Xi, and said that both leaders “want it to happen”.
On July 18, China Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said China wants to bring its trade ties with the US back to a stable footing and that recent talks in Europe showed there was no need for a tariff war. REUTERS
