Trump agrees to visit China after ice-breaking call with Xi
Washington: US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to visit Beijing, as he declared a trade deal with China was in good shape after a phone call with President Xi Jinping – their first since Trump returned to power in January.
The long-awaited call between the two leaders included a renewed joint commitment to reaching a deal, a promising sign after a fragile truce struck in Geneva last month appeared on the verge of collapsing after both countries had accused each other of not honouring their terms.
However, there was some divergence in their respective accounts of the call, which, according to the US president, lasted 1.5 hours and focused almost entirely on trade issues, without addressing the war in Ukraine or concerns about Iran's nuclear technology.
Trump implied there had been a breakthrough in discussions on China's export controls on rare-earth magnets critical to the automotive, defence and energy industries, which had threatened to derail the truce – something the Chinese side did not mention in its account of the talks.
'I think we're in very good shape with China and the trade deal,' he said in the Oval Office shortly after the phone call.
'We were straightening out some of the points, having to do mostly with rare earth magnets and some other things.'
He said that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would soon lead a delegation to meet top Chinese officials and finalise the details of the agreement.
A meeting between the two leaders is also on the horizon, with Trump saying President Xi had invited him and first lady Melania Trump to visit China – an invitation that was confirmed in the Chinese side's read out of the discussions, though it made no mention of Trump's reciprocal invite for Xi to visit the US.
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