Trump to visit Japan in late October, US Treasury secretary says

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump will travel to Japan later in October before he attends the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Oct 15.

“We’re going to do a visit, president’s going to do a visit to Japan, and then move to Korea for the Apec conference, where the leaders as of right now will meet,” Mr Bessent said at a Washington event hosted by cable network CNBC.

Mr Bessent gave no specific dates for the trip to the island nation but said it would come prior to Apec, which begins on Oct 31.

The US president is also to attend the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit scheduled for Oct 26-28 in Kuala Lumpur, where he will observe the ceremonial signing of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia after deadly cross-border clashes.

Mr Trump heads to Asia at a time of increased trade tensions, particularly with China, the world’s largest economy after the US.

Amid a Washington-Beijing tariff war this year, tit-for-tat duties reached triple-digit levels at one point, snarling supply chains.

While both sides subsequently de-escalated, China last week

announced a curb on rare earth exports

, a move that prompted Mr Trump to threaten an additional 100-percent tariff on goods from China starting Nov 1.

Mr Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to meet in South Korea during the Apec gathering.

The US president on Oct 10

threatened to scrap the face-to-face

with Mr Xi after the rare earth curbs, but Mr Bessent said on Oct 15 he believes the two leaders are still expected to meet.

Conditions are also uncertain in Japan, where Ms Sanae Takaichi’s bid to become the country’s first woman premier is in peril after the ruling coalition collapsed last week. AFP