WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump departed Washington Friday night for Asia with trade and U.S. relations with China top of mind.
The nearly weeklong trip will include visits to three countries as well as a refueling stop in Qatar, touch two separate summits and include individual meetings with multiple heads of state. But all eyes are likely to be fixated on the end of his trip when he is set to hold a high-stakes sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid a recently reinflamed trade war between the world’s two largest economies and with the threat of massive new tariffs looming.
Briefing reporters on a phone call, senior U.S. officials said Trump will sign a “series of economic agreements” over the course of the trip, including what they described as “forward looking and tough” trade deals as well as a new agreement on critical minerals. On the first leg of the visit, Trump is also set to preside over a “significant peace agreement,” the officials added.
Before arriving in Malaysia on Sunday morning, Trump will speak with the emir and prime minister of Qatar aboard Air Force One during a refueling stop at Al Udeid Air Base, a White House official said early Saturday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would join the president for the meeting with Qatari leaders, the official said.
Once in Malaysia, the U.S. president will meet with its prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, and then attend a working dinner with leaders from a bloc of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also known as ASEAN, as part of the group’s 2025 summit, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday.
Trump will head to Japan on Monday and meet with its newly elected leader and the country’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo on Tuesday, Leavitt added. While there, senior U.S. officials said the president will also pay a visit to U.S. troops in the region.
He will set off Wednesday for Busan, South Korea, where he will sit down with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and take part in two events for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, summit, including delivering keynote remarks at a CEO luncheon and joining a working dinner, according to Leavitt.
APEC, a forum established in 1989 to focus on the economies of nations in the Asia-Pacific, includes 21 countries, including China, Russia, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
Thursday is when Trump is scheduled to hold his first in-person meeting of his second term with Xi, Leavitt said, before he heads back to the White House.
Trump spent this week leading up to the meeting projecting confidence it would lead to a successful outcome, with a lot on the line for both countries.
Officials were able to temporarily cool a trade war that exploded this spring between the U.S. and China and saw each country place tariffs of well over 100% on one another. But tensions flared again after China’s announcement earlier this month that it was placing new export controls on its rare earth minerals. The move to put restrictions on access to its critical minerals, which are considered essential for manufacturing and technology moving forward, led Trump to vow to increase the tariffs he’s placed on the country by 100 percentage points, resulting in a total rate of 157%, if a deal isn’t worked out by Nov. 1.
China processes nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Trump brought Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, a country fertile with rare earth resources of its own, to the White House this week to sign a critical minerals deal in a bid to counter Beijing’s commanding presence in the space.
In the immediate wake of the announcement, the U.S. president also hinted at calling off the yet-to-be-scheduled meeting with his Chinese counterpart but tides shifted again just days later when he pledged “all will be fine” with China and insisted Xi “just had a bad moment.”
This week, Trump has insisted his administration will be able to reach a “very fair deal” with China on trade and has touted his relationship with his Chinese counterpart. Two of his top trade officials are already engaging in talks in Asia with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
“I think we’re going to come out very well, and everyone’s going to be very happy,” Trump declared to reporters Thursday regarding the upcoming meeting.
Trump also said he will discuss China’s role in the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. with his Chinese counterpart.
Despite calling on European nations to halt buying oil from Russia as he hopes to hinder its economy as part of his effort to end the war in Ukraine and putting higher tariffs on the U.S. ally of India for doing so, Trump has yet to take the same action against China. But he told reporters this week he plans to bring the topic up with Xi.
“What I’ll really be talking to him about is, how do we end the war with Russia and Ukraine, whether it’s through oil or energy or anything else?” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the same day his administration announced new sanctions on Russian oil companies.
Trump also told reporters that day he believed he and Xi could reach deals on critical minerals, soybeans and “maybe even nuclear.”
Democrats and some Republicans are also fuming over his administration’s decision to lend an economic hand to Argentina, even after the Latin American country cut export taxes on agricultural products, including soybeans. China has been the biggest export market for U.S. soybeans, and lawmakers argue that boosting Argentina is hurting U.S. farmers.
In Asia, the U.S. leader is also likely to talk trade with Japan and South Korea.
The administration cut a deal earlier this year with Japan that is set to include the country investing billions in the U.S. but Trump will now be talking details with a new prime minister.
Meanwhile, the trade deal that the U.S. made with South Korea still has specifics to be worked out, and the meeting between Trump and his South Korean counterpart comes just weeks after the Trump administration’s immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia led to the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers.
Maddie Gannon
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