Trump to meet Xi in South Korea for first time this term, amid renewed trade tensions
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will leave for Malaysia late Friday night and will also visit Japan and South Korea as part of his trip.
US President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo)
US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week during his upcoming visit to Asia. News agency Reuters reported that the White House confirmed the the bilateral meeting on Thursday amid rising trade and tariff tensions between Washington DC and Beijing.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will leave for Malaysia late Friday night and will also visit Japan and South Korea as part of his trip. “On Thursday morning local time, President Trump will participate in a bilateral meeting with President Xi of the People’s Republic of China, before departing to return home,” Leavitt was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Next week’s talks will mark the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi since Trump began his second term in office.
Meetings across Malaysia, Japan and South Korea
Trump’s first stop will be Malaysia, where he is expected to meet Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and attend a working dinner with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Sunday.
He will then travel to Tokyo on Monday to hold talks with Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Trump is set to arrive in South Korea to meet President Lee Jae Myung and deliver keynote remarks at a luncheon for business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit.
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He will also attend a US-APEC leaders’ dinner before his scheduled meeting with Xi the following morning.
The meeting comes at a tense moment in US-China relations. A long-running trade dispute flared up earlier this month after Beijing expanded export restrictions on rare-earth minerals, a move seen as a response to US economic policies.
Trump, who initially threatened retaliatory tariffs, has recently adopted a more optimistic tone. “I think we’re going to come out very well, and everyone’s going to be very happy,” he told reporters on Thursday, as per Reuters.
Trump said one of his top priorities in the meeting will be addressing the fentanyl crisis. “The first question I’m going to be asking him about is fentanyl,” he said, according to Reuters, adding, “I’m putting it right at the front of the list.”
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Washington has long accused Beijing of failing to stop the flow of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has fuelled overdose deaths in the US. China, in turn, has rejected the allegations and accused the US of using the issue as leverage in trade disputes.
The White House has cited the flow of these chemicals from China as one reason for its recent decision to raise tariffs on Chinese imports, reported Reuters.
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US President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo) 
