China and the United States have reached a truce on thorny issues ranging from soybeans and rare earths to fentanyl, following Thursday’s meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in South Korea.
Trump hailed the talks at the Gimhae Air Base in Busan as a “great success” and said he had agreed to visit China in April. He added that Xi would visit the US “some time after that”.
The summit may help the two countries’ relationship enter a “more constructive phase” following a series of clashes over trade, according to observers, but they warned that a series of deep-rooted problems within the relationship could still derail any progress.
The 100-minute meeting was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House in January.
“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other and it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then,” Xi told the US leader, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
He added he was willing to continue working with Trump to “build a solid foundation for China-US relations and create a sound atmosphere for the development of both countries”.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One shortly after he left South Korea, Trump said the two leaders had “agreed to almost everything” and described the summit as “amazing” and a “good meeting for two very large, powerful countries”.
