Busan, South Korea: US President Donald Trump praised a “surprising” meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea at the end of his Asia tour, saying it had resulted in a trade deal that would allow the US to cut fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods in half, effective immediately.
The deal will also allow China to resume soybean purchases and suspend its rare earth licensing regime for at least a year, Trump said.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan on Thursday.Credit: AP
“I guess on the scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump said. “You know, the whole relationship is very, very important. I think it was very good.”
The president’s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington DC after a meeting that lasted an hour and 40 minutes indicated that the leaders had largely formalized a framework agreement reached over the weekend by Chinese and US officials in Malaysia. China has not yet released information about the talks.
As they sat down with their delegations to begin talks, Xi told Trump through a translator that it was normal for the world’s two major economies to have friction from time to time. A few days ago, trade negotiators from both countries reached a “fundamental consensus to address each other’s major concerns,” Xi said. “I am willing to continue working with President Trump to lay a solid foundation for China-US relations,” he added.
Just before Trump entered the meeting in Busan, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in nearby Gyeongju, Trump declared on social media that he had ordered the United States to restart nuclear weapons testing, after Russia announced tests of a nuclear-powered underwater drone and a nuclear-capable cruise missile.
Trump and Xi sit down for talks in Busan.Credit: fake images
“Due to other countries’ testing programs, I have directed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on a level playing field. That process will begin immediately,” Trump wrote in a social media post ahead of his meeting with Xi.
Such a test would be seen in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of US strategic power. The United States’ last nuclear explosive test was in 1992, although it continues to test delivery systems – including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bombers – with simulated weapons. Russia has not conducted nuclear tests since 1990, while China’s last test was in 1996. according to the United Nations.
