President Donald Trump’s first visit to Asia since returning to power will include a high-stakes sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping and a series of new trade agreements — as well as a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, the White House said Friday.
Deputy Press Secretary told reporters that Trump’s trip to Asia — he was scheduled to leave shortly before 11 p.m. ET Friday — will allow him to “deliver for the American people in one of the most economically vibrant regions of the world” by “signing a series of economic agreements” with Asian leaders.
Kelly said the agreements would “further reshape the global economic order and secure more investments that will create high paying jobs and advance the reindustrialization of America,” and will include “forward looking and tough trade deals that will benefit American workers, exporters, farmers, small businesses and digital innovators” as well as “critical mineral agreements that will rapidly unlock the region’s resources to create reliable industrial supply chains to support a resilient and prosperous world economy.”
Trump’s first stop is in Malaysia, where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is hosting the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders summit.
According to Kelly, he will use the occasion to “preside” over the signing of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, which she said would “save more lives, reduce more conflict and advance security across a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Additionally, Trump will attend a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Ibrahim and a US-ASEAN working dinner with leaders that night.
He will then fly to Japan, where he will meet with the country’s newly-installed prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, as well as Emperor Naruhito. He’ll also be joined by “dozens” of corporate leaders on the visit, and will meet with forward-deployed American troops before flying to South Korea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
There, Trump is scheduled to speak to a group of business leaders “upon arrival” before a bilateral program hosted by South Korean president Lee Jae Myung, who will then host Trump as the guest of honor for an “exclusive and intimate heads of state dinner” along with “key regional leaders.
The next day in Busan, South Korea, Trump will meet with Xi for the first time since he was sworn in for his second term in January before returning to Washington.
The meeting between Trump and Xi comes after months of tensions amid the escalating trade war the president started shortly after taking office.
Trump first announced his intention to meet with the Chinese leader last month after what he called a “very productive” phone call focusing largely on his administration’s agreement to put TikTok’s American operations in the hands of an American ownership group.
Since then, Trump has escalated his war of words with Beijing by accusing China of leveraging its soybean purchase power for negotiations and declares soybeans to be “a major topic of discussion” when he meets Xi.
He has also hit out at Xi’s government for recent announcements of restrictions on export of rare earth materials and threatened to increase the tax rate Americans pay for Chinese imports to a whopping 157 percent, though he later conceded that such a high tariff is “not sustainable.”
A senior administration official who briefed reporters on plans for the trip said Trump’s intent for his sit-down with Xi is to discuss “the trade, the economic relationship between the United States and China” rather than other matters such as America’s policy towards Taiwan, particularly given recent actions by Beijing which the official described as threats to “global economic stability.”
When pressed specifically on whether Trump would engage with Xi on Taiwan, the official replied: “There’s no intent from the US side to discuss other issues,” though he later stressed that he was sure Trump would be “prepared to respond.”
Despite Trump’s often-bellicose rhetoric towards Beijing when it comes to trade policy, the president claimed on Monday that he commands “great respect” from Beijing and that he will reach a “fantastic deal” with Xi when the two leaders meet.
Trump met with Xi on multiple occasions during his first four years in office, and he has often expressed admiration for the Chinese leader.
Another regional leader he has had kind words for in the past is Kim Jong-Un, the North Korean dictator with whom he met for two summits during his first term — plus an impromptu June 2019 meeting at the Korean Demilitarized Zone that saw the American president actually cross into South Korea for a few moments.
But even though Trump has expressed a desire to rekindle his relationship with Kim since returning to office, a senior White House official said a meeting with the North Korean dictator is “not on the schedule for this trip.”
With additional reporting by wire agencies
