Leaders of the US and China will meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, at the end of next month, marking their first encounter since Donald Trump began his second term and their first meeting in more than six years.
The last time the two leaders met was in June 2019 at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
Trump announced the plan on his Truth Social account Friday after a lengthy phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the two sides agreed to meet in Gyeongju and that “both are looking forward to the meeting.”
The Oct. 31-Nov. 1 summit taking place in the southeastern city of Gyeongju is expected to be one of the year’s key diplomatic gatherings, with US-China relations a focal point for security and trade.
It is not yet clear whether the Trump-Xi encounter will be a formal summit or a more informal exchange. But it will be the first in-person bilateral contact between the two leaders since Trump’s second term began. It will also mark the first time in 13 years that both US and Chinese leaders visit South Korea simultaneously, since the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit.
In his Truth Social post, Trump also said he plans to visit China in the early part of next year, with Xi expected to make a reciprocal trip to the US “at an appropriate time.”
If Trump follows through, it would be the first visit to China by a US president in more than eight years, since his own state visit in November 2017.
Xi last visited the United States in April 2017, meeting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. A statement from the Chinese government, however, did not mention the visits.
The upcoming talks in Gyeongju, and Trump’s planned visit to China next year, are widely seen as a test of whether the two powers can find common ground on trade disputes, export controls on semiconductors and rare earths, and rising military tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
Trump said progress has already been made on “a number of issues, including trade, fentanyl, the need to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, and approval of the TikTok sale.”
One hurdle Trump had to clear to keep TikTok operating in the US was Beijing’s approval of a framework deal reached last week. Under a law passed by Congress, the app faced a January 2025 shutdown unless its US assets were sold by Chinese parent company ByteDance.
Xi told Trump that Beijing ”would be happy to see productive commercial negotiations in keeping with market rules," which would "lead to a solution that complies with China’s laws and regulations and takes into account the interests of both sides,” according to the Chinese statement.
“The US side needs to provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese investors,” it said.
By The Korea Herald and news reports
khnews@heraldcorp.com
