Latest news with #China-US
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
2 hours ago
- Business
- First Post
US-China tariff war: Trump, Xi expected to talk soon on minerals trade dispute
Since Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports. New tit-for-tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month read more President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to speak soon to resolve ongoing trade disputes, including recent tensions over critical minerals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday (June 1). On Friday, Trump accused China of breaching a bilateral agreement to mutually reduce tariffs and ease restrictions on trade in critical minerals, which are vital for industries worldwide. 'What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe. And that is not what a reliable partner does,' Bessent said in an interview with CBS' 'Face the Nation.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'I am confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call, that this will be ironed out. But the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement - maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it's intentional. We'll see after the President speaks with the party chairman,' he added. China confirmed in April that Xi and Trump had not communicated recently. Trump, however, said on Friday (May 30) he anticipated speaking with Xi soon. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said no specific date has been finalized for the conversation, but discussions are underway for a dialogue regarding last month's Geneva agreement addressing tariff issues. 'President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That's our expectation,' Hassett said. China-US trade tensions Since Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports. New tit-for-tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent. China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125 percent to 10 percent. With inputs from Reuters
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Macron touts 'positive new' Asia-Europe alliance amid US-China rivalry
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on European and Asian nations to work together to build a "positive new alliance" to avoid being dragged into the growing rivalry between the US and China. Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Macron singled out the China-US rivalry as the biggest risk confronting the world. France's longstanding goal for Europe's strategic autonomy is also relevant for Asian countries, which share many of the same interests and can combine forces with like-minded European partners as they seek a third way, Macron said in the speech on Friday. The time for non-alignment has undoubtedly passed, but the time for coalitions of action has come and requires that countries capable of acting together give themselves every means to do so, Macron said in his keynote address. Let's build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia, based on our common norms, on our common principles. Our shared responsibility is to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers, the leader of Europe's second-largest economy added. We have a challenge of revisionist countries that want to impose under the name of spheres of influence in reality, spheres of coercion; countries that want to control areas from the fringe of Europe to the archipelagos in the South China Sea, at the exclusion of regional partners, oblivious to international law, Macron said. Macron pointed out that France is an Indo-Pacific nation as seven of its offshore territories sit in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, with a million French citizens living in this region. Macron said that the unpredictability of Trump's tariff approach that ended a rule-based order for our trade constitutes a common threat to Europe and Asia, affecting these nations' ability to finance their defence, requiring their greater cohesion. France is a friend and an ally of the United States, and is a friendand we do cooperate if sometimes we disagree and competewith China, he said. We don't want to be instructed on a daily basis what is allowed, what is not allowed, and how our life will change because of the decision of a single person. The dialogue also included US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and defence and security leaders from around the world. Hegseth, meanwhile, asked Asian countries to increase their defence spending to match levels that Washington expects of European allies. It is hard to believe I can say this but Asian allies and partners should look to countries in Europe as a new-found example. NATO members are pledging to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence, even Germany, he said. Hegseth had communicated to European allies this expectation at the Munich Security Conference in February. How can it make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies and partners in Asia spend far less in the face of a far more formidable threat from Communist China, not to mention North Korea? he asked. The global forum is being skipped by China by not sending its Defence Minister. Defence experts and diplomatic sources said the absence of a Chinese Ministerial representation at the Singapore Dialogue is being felt as China had last year and on several other occasions traded strong words with the US delegates. Hegseth underlined, Ultimately, a strong, resolute, and capable network of allies and partners is our key strategic advantage. China envies what we have together. President Donald Trump has been calling on US allies to bear a greater responsibility for their conventional defences, telling the nations in the South China region not to expect the US to bear the financial burden alone for regional stability and security. For a generation, the US ignored the Indo-Pacific, but under the Trump administration, we are here to stay, Hegseth said.
The Star
2 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Macron touts ‘positive new' Asia-Europe alliance amid US-China rivalry
SINGAPORE: French President Emmanuel Macron urged Asia and Europe to work together in a new coalition based on common principles to push back against the inevitability of being caught between global superpowers. Singling out the China-US rivalry as the biggest risk confronting the world, the French leader said he wants to be able to cooperate with the US at the same time as compete with but not confront China – while adopting a 'demanding approach' that puts France's interests first. In expanding on the French doctrines of 'strategic autonomy' and 'freedom of sovereignty' to a gathering of global leaders at a pre-eminent security forum in the Asia-Pacific, President Macron sketched out a plausible 'third way' for Europe and the rest of Asia amid significant shifts in the world order and a world beset by multiple crises. 'The time for non-alignment has undoubtedly passed, but the time for coalitions of action has come and requires that countries capable of acting together give themselves every means to do so,' Macron said in his keynote address at the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue on Friday (May 30). 'Let's build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia, based on our common norms, on our common principles. 'Our shared responsibility is to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers,' the leader of Europe's second-largest economy added. Macron called upon Asian countries, particularly India, and members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to work together. 'Let's work in an open way, the genuine way,' he said. 'But let's work very closely on defence, security and all the building blocks of our value chains.' The administration of US President Donald Trump has upended longstanding US commitments to the post-Cold War order and imposed trade tariffs on even its closest allies since returning to office at the turn of 2025. Washington has also ratcheted up its hawkish efforts to contain China that have left the rest of the world reeling in the wake of its actions and China's responses, fearing a full-fledged trade war that would crimp economic growth globally. For its part, China has been engaged in dangerous skirmishes with Philippine coast guard and navy vessels in waters in the South China Sea where it has overlapping claims with the Philippines. 'We have a challenge of revisionist countries that want to impose under the name of spheres of influence – in reality, spheres of coercion; countries that want to control areas from the fringe of Europe to the archipelagos in the South China Sea, at the exclusion of regional partners, oblivious to international law,' Macron said, without making overt references to China or Russia. Macron pointed out that France is an Indo-Pacific nation as seven of its offshore territories sit in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, with a million French citizens living in this region. In 2018, his government released an Indo-Pacific security strategy. He said that the strategy would be updated in the coming weeks. In the past 12 months, the Russians have engaged the support of North Korean troops in their invasion of Ukraine, now well into its fourth year – sparking fears of a broader conflagration of the war. 'But what's happening with North Korea being present alongside Russia on the European side is a big question for all of us,' Macron said. On the whole, China and North Korea are ideologically aligned, while Beijing and Moscow have referred to themselves as 'friends of steel'. 'And this is why, if China doesn't want Nato being involved in South-east Asia or in Asia, they should prevent, clearly, DPRK from being engaged on European soil,' the French leader added, referring to the abbreviation of the official name for North Korea. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was a peacetime military alliance established in 1949 to provide collective security against the threat of expansionism posed by the former Soviet Union. While Russia has often cited the growth of Nato to include several former Soviet states as a reason for its invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has viewed recent talk about a possible Nato office in Tokyo as a threat and part of an attempt to encircle it. At the same time, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked fears that China could well do the same with Taiwan, a self-governing territory that Beijing claims as its own to be reunified by force if necessary. 'So what is at stake in Ukraine is our common credibility to be sure that we are still able to preserve territorial integrity and sovereignty of people,' Macron said. The French President also flagged the 'big risk of nuclear proliferation', acknowledging the critical levers the US has with the Iranians at a time when tensions are fraught in the Middle East. With Russia a nuclear power and North Korea also developing its nuclear arsenal with the assistance of China, Macron warns that any type of nuclear proliferation in Iran will trigger 'all sorts of justification proliferate elsewhere with the domino effect'. 'How are regional countries threatened by the DPRK supposed to act. What can reasonably be on the mind when they owe their people, before anything else, their security in Europe and in Asia?' said Macron. 'How can mid-sized countries, faced with aggressive nations, ensure that they won't have to surrender or live in fear. But sure enough, our challenges are not only similar, they are getting increasingly intertwined,' he added. Macron's keynote address marked the end of a week-long swing through South-east Asia, where he shored up bilateral relationships with Vietnam and Indonesia before he arrived in Singapore on May 29. In Singapore, Macron and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong inked on May 30 the Republic's first comprehensive strategic partnership with a European nation. In his keynote address at the security forum organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the French President said this new Asia-Europe alliance he is proposing 'feels like' Singapore's DNA. He also left the door open for China and the US to join this coalition. 'We must show consistency where others practise a double game. 'And this is exactly my call tonight: Let's build new coalitions of open trade, open dialogue to derisk our models, stabilise environments and new coalitions to stabilise an open and rules-based order,' he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Europe Sees China-Russia threat as world's ‘greatest challenge'
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Popular in Rise 1. Tariff truce keeps China-US trade flowing across the Pacific China Absence Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads European leaders headed to Asia this week with a key message: We need to work closer together to preserve the rules-based order against threats from China and Russia. Kaja Kallas , the European Union 's top diplomat, and French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized the links between Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine and Russia's deepening relationship with China during a range of appearances in Southeast Asia in recent days.'It is the greatest challenge of our time,' Kallas told an audience at the Shangri-La security conference in Singapore on Kallas, vice president of the European Commission, during the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, May 31. Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg'When China and Russia speak of leading together changes not seen in a hundred years and of revisions of the global security order, we should all be extremely worried,' she accused China of enabling Russia's war machine, saying 80% of dual-use goods used to fight Ukraine come from the world's second-biggest economy. She noted how US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned about China's threat to the rest of Asia, and said Russia should also be a top concern.'If you are worried about China, you should be worried about Russia,' Kallas officials accuse China of supplying Russia with critical technologies, including drones, while saying that both nations have engaged in cyberattacks, acts of sabotage and dangerous activities related to infrastructure such as deep-sea called on European and Asian partners to work together on tackling covert shadow fleets of tankers and to review maritime security laws. North Korea's direct support of Russia's war efforts – including missiles, ammunition and troops – has further brought the conflict closer to home on both sides of the world.'If China doesn't want NATO being involved in Southeast Asia or in Asia, they should prevent North Korea from engaging on European soil,' Macron said in a keynote address in Singapore on to reporters after a meeting on Thursday of a little-known defense grouping known as the Five Power Defence Arrangements, which brings together the Commonwealth nations of Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and the UK, officials from several member countries acknowledged some common challenges. That included risks against underwater information infrastructure in Europe and Asia.'It is a complex and new area,' said General Mohd Nizam Jaffar, Malaysia's chief of defense forces. 'But we are looking into it.'China's defense minister, Dong Jun, isn't in Singapore this week — an absence that surprised European officials. It's the first time since 2019 that China hasn't sent its top military diplomat to the annual forum, where the head of delegation typically delivers a speech and takes questions on the third day of the relationship between China and Russia is complicated. While on the surface the two sides have expressed a 'no limits' friendship that has seen them step up military and political exchanges, they still have key has long wanted China to buy more of its non-energy products and is wary of an influx of cheap Chinese goods with the exodus of Western brands. Beijing has spoken out against Russia's nuclear threats and is cautious of being perceived as too closely linked to Russia, as that could carry the risk of sanctions and hurt the potential to improve ties with Europe in a world rattled by US President Donald Trump's tariffs and in the Indo-Pacific and Southeast Asia are caught between the threat of dramatically higher US levies and a surge of cheaper Chinese goods that could cost them manufacturing jobs. Many rely on China economically and the US for defense, an arrangement that Hegseth challenged in a speech at the forum on an apparent jab at the US and China a day earlier, Macron condemned 'revisionist countries' that seek to impose 'spheres of coercion.' He called for fresh cooperation between Europe and Asia based on free trade, jointly mitigating risks and autonomous decision-making. In Europe's case, that means being allied to the US as a matter of choice but not being dependent on it, while wanting to cooperate and compete fairly with China.'Our shared responsibility is to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers,' the French president leaders in Singapore, including Macron and Kallas, have pitched the bloc as a reliable and credible ally to nations worried about having to choose between the US and China. Europe has a long-term, strategic commitment to this region, Kallas said on Saturday.'If you reject unilateralism, bullying and aggression, and instead choose cooperation, shared prosperity and common security, the European Union will always be by your side,' she said.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
French President Macron touts ‘positive new' Asia-Europe alliance amid US-China rivalry
Singapore, French President Emmanuel Macron has called on European and Asian nations to work together to build a "positive new alliance" to avoid being dragged into the growing rivalry between the US and China. Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Macron singled out the China-US rivalry as the biggest risk confronting the world. France's longstanding goal for Europe's strategic autonomy is also relevant for Asian countries, which share many of the same interests and can combine forces with like-minded European partners as they seek 'a third way,' Macron said in the speech on Friday. 'The time for non-alignment has undoubtedly passed, but the time for coalitions of action has come and requires that countries capable of acting together give themselves every means to do so,' Macron said in his keynote address. 'Let's build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia, based on our common norms, on our common principles. Our shared responsibility is to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers,' the leader of Europe's second-largest economy added. 'We have a challenge of revisionist countries that want to impose under the name of spheres of influence – in reality, spheres of coercion; countries that want to control areas from the fringe of Europe to the archipelagos in the South China Sea, at the exclusion of regional partners, oblivious to international law,' Macron said. Macron pointed out that France is an Indo-Pacific nation as seven of its offshore territories sit in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, with a million French citizens living in this region. Macron said that the 'unpredictability' of Trump's tariff approach that ended 'a rule-based order for our trade' constitutes a common threat to Europe and Asia, affecting these nations' ability to finance their defence, requiring their greater cohesion. 'France is a friend and an ally of the United States, and is a friend—and we do cooperate if sometimes we disagree and compete—with China,' he said. 'We don't want to be instructed on a daily basis what is allowed, what is not allowed, and how our life will change because of the decision of a single person.' The dialogue also included US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and defence and security leaders from around the world. Hegseth, meanwhile, asked Asian countries to increase their defence spending to match levels that Washington expects of European allies. 'It is hard to believe I can say this – but Asian allies and partners should look to countries in Europe as a new-found example. NATO members are pledging to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence, even Germany,' he said. Hegseth had communicated to European allies this expectation at the Munich Security Conference in February. 'How can it make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies and partners in Asia spend far less in the face of a far more formidable threat from Communist China, not to mention North Korea? he asked. The global forum is being skipped by China by not sending its Defence Minister. Defence experts and diplomatic sources said the absence of a Chinese Ministerial representation at the Singapore Dialogue is being felt as China had last year and on several other occasions traded strong words with the US delegates. Hegseth underlined, 'Ultimately, a strong, resolute, and capable network of allies and partners is our key strategic advantage. China envies what we have together.' President Donald Trump has been calling on US allies to bear a greater responsibility for their conventional defences, telling the nations in the South China region not to expect the US to bear the financial burden alone for regional stability and security. For a generation, the US ignored the Indo-Pacific, but under the Trump administration, 'we are here to stay', Hegseth said.
