June 9 (UPI) — Delegates from the United States and China are set to meet Monday in London after a phone call between the nations’ leaders seemingly led to a cooling of tensions related to their otherwise heated recent trade dispute.

“We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody’s interests, so we welcome these talks,” said a British government spokesperson.

The U.K. has provided the space for the countries to chat but hasn’t publicly disclosed its location.

American attendees are slated to include U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, while Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will lead his country’s delegation. It is expected the discussion will put a fair amount of focus on the rare earth minerals situation.

The Trump administration had expected China to back down on export restrictions it had imposed in April on such minerals after talks held in May. China imposed those restrictions in response to tariffs levied by Trump on Chinese goods.

The resulting trade disruption has led to a 2.9% decrease on exports to the United States from April to May, the decrease from May 2024 is 3.4% and the cumulative year-on-year decrease from January to May is at 4.9%, according to Chinese customs data.

However President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone last week, and the conversation was reportedly so friendly it not only led to Monday’s meeting but each invited the other to make a personal visit.

American and Chinese representatives had met last month in Geneva and reportedly reached an agreement to suspend most of the tariffs that had been reciprocally imposed, but both countries have since been accused of agreement violations by the other.