Washington (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in May after delaying an earlier summit because of the war against Iran. Trump said he was looking forward to the “monumental” trip, which was originally due to take place at the end of March, and would host Xi and his wife in Washington later this year.
“My meeting with the Highly Respected President of China, President Xi Jinping, which was originally postponed due to our Military operation in Iran, has been rescheduled, and will take place in Beijing on May 14th and 15th,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. Trump said US and Chinese officials were “finalizing preparations” for the “historic” Beijing and Washington visits. “I look very much forward to spending time with President Xi in what will be, I am sure, a Monumental Event,” Trump added.
The White House had announced the new dates shortly before Trump’s social media post. Trump had been set to travel to Beijing between March 31 and April for the first time in his second term, for a summit aimed at resetting trade ties between the world’s two largest economies. The Chinese and US presidents met in South Korea in October on the sidelines of a regional summit and agreed to a truce in the trade war sparked by Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
But Trump said on March 16 that he had asked China to postpone the meeting while he deals with the war in the Middle East. “Because of the war I want to be here, I have to be here, I feel. And so we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so,” Trump told reporters at the time.
The White House remained coy as to whether the formal rescheduling of the visit meant Trump expected the war with Iran, one of China’s closest geopolitical allies, to end by that time. “We’ve always estimated approximately four to six weeks (for the length of military operations against Iran), so you could do the math on that,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added. “President Xi understood that it’s very important for the president to be here throughout these combat operations right now. He understood obviously the request to postpone and accepted it.”
But analysts have suggested China will be in a stronger position to extract concessions from Trump when he finally visits. His decision last month to join Israel in strikes on Iran has plunged the Middle East into violence, pushed energy prices to years-long highs, and seeded fears of global supply shortages due to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. With Trump struggling to define how the intervention will end and traditional allies reluctant to back him, the US leader may come to China needing a diplomatic win. Trump’s weakened position could help Beijing argue for deeper tariff cuts and limit Washington’s ability to push for change on other trade issues like access to critical minerals.
© 2024 AFP
