WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal and that Chinese President Xi Jinping has called him, according to a Time magazine interview published on Friday, as Beijing has so far disputed the U.S. characterization of talks.
The Republican president did not say when Xi called or what the two leaders discussed, telling TIME: “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf.”
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s statement. Before Trump’s latest comments were published, it had urged Washington to stop “misleading the public” on bilateral tariff negotiations.
Trump added that he will be finished making U.S. deals on tariffs in about three or four weeks. Asked if he would consider it a win if the U.S. still had tariffs as high as 50% in a year, he told TIME: “Total victory.”
Trump also laid out his plans to make various other deals with world leaders from Russia’s war in Ukraine to the Middle East with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
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In Russia’s war with Ukraine, Trump said: “Crimea will stay with Russia. And (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along.”
He also predicted that Saudi Arabia will enter the Abraham accords, the series of normalization agreements Trump’s administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term. He added that he thinks the U.S. will make a deal with Iran.
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