Trump hails ‘amazing’ meeting with Xi in South Korea

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met for the first time in six years – raising hopes of a de-escalation of tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump described the talks held in South Korea as “amazing”, while Beijing said they had reached a consensus to resolve “major trade issues”.

Relations have been strained since Trump began imposing tariffs on China, to which Beijing responded with its own. They agreed to a truce in May, but tensions remained high.

Thursday’s talks did not lead to a formal agreement, but reports suggest they are closer to a deal – the details of which have long been the subject of backroom negotiations.

Trade deals typically take years to negotiate, and countries around the world were thrown into resolving differences with the current Trump administration within months.

One key victory for Trump is that China agreed to end export controls it has imposed on rare earth elements that are critical to the production of everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

A jubilant president told reporters on Air Force One that he had also ordered China to immediately begin buying “massive amounts of soybeans and other agricultural products.” Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs on US soybeans have effectively halted US imports, hurting US farmers – a key voting block for Trump.

However, there was no mention of a TikTok breakout. The U.S. tried to take away the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app from Chinese parent company ByteDance on national security grounds. Afterward, Beijing said it would continue to work to resolve the issues.

Meanwhile, the US said it would remove some of the tariffs it has imposed on Beijing on the flow of ingredients used to make fentanyl to the US. Trump has slapped tough tariffs on the US’s biggest trading partners over their alleged failure to cut drugs.

However, it appears that other duties or taxes on imported goods will remain in place, meaning that goods arriving in the US from China are still taxed at a rate of more than 40% for US importers.

Beijing will also be able to talk to Jensen Huang, the head of US technology firm Nvidia – according to Trump. Nvidia is at the heart of the battle between the two countries over AI chips: China wants high-end chips, but the US wants to limit China’s access, citing national security.

Beijing also extended an invitation to Trump to visit China in April, another sign of thawing relations.

But the meeting also showed the gap between the approaches of the two leaders.

Si was self-sufficient and said only what he had prepared. He went into the meeting knowing he had a strong hand. China has learned from Trump’s first term, using its stranglehold on rare earths and diversifying its trading partners so that it relies less on the US.

After that, he was much more measured in his language than Trump. The two sides will work to achieve results that will serve as a “soothing pill” for both countries’ economies, he said.

Trump was – as always – more promotional. But the US president was also noticeably more tense than during the rest of his whirlwind trip to Southeast Asia – a reflection of the high stakes at Thursday’s meeting.

The glitz and glamor that has been on display since it arrived on its first stop in Malaysia just five days ago was also missing.

Gone are the gold-studded palaces of the type that welcomed him to Japan on Tuesday. Instead, an airport building lying behind barbed wire and checkpoints.

The military bands that welcomed Trump to South Korea on Wednesday were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, the only sign that anything important was happening inside was the increased police and media presence.

But despite the quieter public face, what happened inside was perhaps the most significant hour and 20 minutes of the trip.

Henry Wang, a former adviser to China’s State Council, told the BBC Radio 4 program today that the talks between Trump and Xi “went very well”.

It may not have been a commercial deal, but a “framework and structure” was put in place, he added, calling it a “good start”.