ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: US President Donald Trump headed Saturday for Asia and high-stakes trade talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, saying that he would also like to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his trip.
Trump is set to meet Xi in South Korea on the last day of his regional swing in a bid to seal a deal to end the bruising trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
He will also visit Malaysia and Japan on his first trip to Asia since he returned to the White House in January in a blaze of tariffs and international dealmaking.
During a refueling stop on the way there, Trump is expected to meet Saturday with the emir and prime minister of Qatar — a key ally in preserving the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he hoped for a “very good meeting” with Xi, adding that he expected China to make a deal to avoid further 100 percent tariffs that are due to come into effect on November 1.
A US Treasury spokesman told AFP that US and Chinese officials in Malaysia concluded a day of “very constructive” trade talks, which are expected to resume on Sunday.
As he left Washington, Trump added to speculation that he could meet Kim for the first time since 2019 while on the Korean peninsula.
“I’m open to it,” Trump said aboard the presidential plane. “I had a great relationship with him.”
Asked if he was open to North Korea’s demand to be recognized as a nuclear state as a precondition for talks, Trump replied: “Well, I think they are sort of a nuclear power... They got a lot of nuclear weapons, I’ll say that.”
The two leaders last met in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas during Trump’s first term. Kim has said he would also be open to meeting the US president if Washington drops its demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear arsenal.
Seoul’s reunification minister has said there is a “considerable” chance that Trump and Kim will meet while the US leader visits South Korea.
Trump’s first stop will be Malaysia, where he arrives on Sunday, for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit — a meeting he skipped several times in his first term.
Trump is set to sign a trade deal with Malaysia, and will witness the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia in his continued quest for a Nobel Peace Prize.
He said he also expected to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the summit to improve ties with the leftist leader after months of bad blood.
The US president’s next destination is Tokyo, where he arrives Monday. He will meet conservative Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday after she was named this week as Japan’s first woman prime minister.
Takaichi said Saturday in a post on X that she had a “good and candid” initial conversation with Trump.
Japan has escaped the worst of the tariffs Trump slapped on countries around the world to end what he calls unfair trade balances that are “ripping off the United States.”
The highlight of the trip is expected to be South Korea, with Trump due to land in the southern port city of Busan on Wednesday ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Trump will meet South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, address an APEC lunch with business leaders and meet US tech bosses for dinner on the sidelines of the summit in the city of Gyeongju.
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