US President Donald Trump departs on Friday for a three-nation tour of Asia that will include high-stakes discussions with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as Washington downplays speculation about a meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
His itinerary begins in Malaysia, followed by stops in Japan and South Korea, and he is scheduled to meet Xi in South Korea on the final day of the trip in an effort to achieve “a deal on everything” aimed at ending the bitter trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies, reports Reuters, AP -UNB and agencies.
Trump, now 79, will visit Malaysia and Japan for the first time on an Asian tour since his return to the White House in January, a tour shaped by sweeping tariffs and geopolitical deal-making.
A senior US official said that President Trump will “deliver for the American people in one of the most economically vibrant regions of the world, signing a series of economic agreements,” he added.
In South Korea, the possibility of a meeting with Kim Jong Un drew attention after Seoul’s reunification minister said such a meeting was “considerable,” but the US official said it was “not on the schedule,” despite both leaders having expressed interest in reviving the unexpected relationship they built during Donald Trump’s first term.
In Malaysia, where the trip starts, Mr. Trump will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit that he skipped several times as president during his first term. He is slated to sign a trade deal with Malaysia and oversee a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia as part of his push for recognition on the global stage.
The next leg in Tokyo will include a meeting with Japan’s newly appointed first woman prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, on Tuesday. Japan largely avoided the tariffs President Trump imposed on other nations in his bid to address what he calls unfair trade practices against the United States.
The trip’s climax will be in South Korea: Donald Trump will fly to Busan on Wednesday ahead of the Asia‑Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) in Gyeongju, where he is to meet South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, address a business-leaders lunch and meet US tech executives for dinner.
The meeting with Xi is set for Thursday, the first one between them since Trump’s return to office.
Global markets will watch closely for any movement in the US-China trade war, sparked earlier this year by Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff program and recent Chinese rare-earth export controls.
President Trump had threatened to cancel the summit and impose fresh tariffs over the rare-earth dispute, only to reverse course.
“The president is most interested in discussing the trade and economic relationship,” another senior US official said.
Steve Bannon described the upcoming Xi meeting as a “throw of the iron dice,” given the huge implications if talks fail, while analysts warned not to expect dramatic breakthroughs.
“The meeting will be a data point along an existing continuum rather than an inflection point in the relationship,” said Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution.
