Oct. 23 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are to meet and discuss trade and other matters during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Busan, South Korea.
Trump is scheduled to leave the United States on Friday, with stops planned in Malaysia and Japan ahead of the APEC conference that has a leaders meeting scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov.1.
He and Xi agreed to meet on Oct. 30, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Thursday.
The planned meeting comes after Trump announced he would impose 100% tariffs on top of existing tariffs on all Chinese-made goods in retaliation for China’s earlier announcement of global restrictions on the use of rare earth minerals.
China dominates the world’s rare earth minerals market and intends to restrict their export and require companies to sign licensing agreements to use them, no matter where those firms might be headquartered.
“We’ll make a deal on everything,” Trump told media while at the Oval Office on Wednesday.
The in-person meeting would be the first between the two since 2019 and could include discussions regarding the war in Ukraine.
Trump said Xi would “like to see that war end,” Politico reported.
The president also anticipates discussing a variety of issues with the Chinese leader, including nuclear power, China’s reliance on Russian oil and trade.
The bilateral summit will be a “pretty long meeting” to enable the two world leaders to “work out a lot of our questions and our doubts,” Trump said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
Trump will depart the United States late Friday night and arrive in Malaysia on Sunday morning, local time.
“President Trump will participate in a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Malaysia in the afternoon, and then we will attend the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] leaders’ working dinner that evening,” Leavitt said.
The president will depart Malaysia on Monday morning and arrive in Tokyo to meet with new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is the first woman to be elected to the position.
Following his meeting with Takaichi, Trump will continue to Busan, South Korea, to hold a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ahead of his meeting with Xi.
The president will return to the United States after meeting with the Chinese president, Leavitt said.