Donald Trump arrives at Haneda Airport in Tokyo Monday. The U.S. President hopes to sign a comprehensive trade pact when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week.PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump landed in Japan on Monday as part of a whirlwind diplomatic tour of Asia, after wrapping up a trio of trade deals that could strengthen his hand in a much anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week.
In Kuala Lumpur over the weekend for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Mr. Trump struck new trade agreements with Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, including co-operation on issues such as export controls and access to critical minerals.
There was progress on talks with China, too, with officials from both sides hashing out what U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer said were the “final details” of a comprehensive trade pact that could be signed by Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi when they meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in South Korea later this week.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for President Xi and I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Mr. Trump said on Monday. “We have China coming and it’s going to be very interesting.”
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The Trump-Xi meeting – their first in-person summit since 2019 – was thrown into doubt earlier this month after China introduced new controls on rare earths, a move Mr. Trump described as “very hostile” and said would be met with an additional 100 per cent tariff on Chinese exports.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have been on a roller coaster since Mr. Trump returned to power and restarted a trade war against China, with both sides imposing escalating tariffs on each other that threatened to stymie almost all trade between the world’s two largest economies. Since then, high-level talks on a comprehensive deal have taken place, but progress has often been followed by short-lived diplomatic blow-ups, such as the latest spat over rare earths.
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Sunday over striking a trade agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he is expected to meet next week.
Reuters
Speaking to a U.S. broadcaster on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi will have a “fantastic meeting,” and said he was confident Beijing would back down on the rare earth controls, meaning that “the tariffs will be averted.”
Ahead of his trip to South Korea, Mr. Trump landed in Japan Monday, where he will meet with the country’s emperor and its new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi.
Tokyo was once Washington’s strongest ally in Asia, but relations have been strained by Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Japanese exports and Japan’s stronger-than-expected response.
Ms. Takaichi is unlikely to rock the boat, however, seeking Washington’s support for her desire to boost Japan’s military. She may also seek to draw on Mr. Trump’s fondness for her former mentor, the late prime minister Shinzo Abe.
APEC has laid the groundwork for a more connected global economy and led to the establishment of regional and inter-regional trade agreements. But analysts say geopolitical tensions threaten the bloc and its long term agenda.
Reuters
“She’s very friendly,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Saturday after a phone call with Ms. Takaichi. “She was a very, very close ally and friend of prime minister Abe and you know he was one of my favourites.”
A conservative and China hawk, Ms. Takaichi is a strong supporter of Taiwan, visiting the island democracy earlier this year and calling for Taipei and Tokyo to “jointly address defence challenges.” Following her election, Taiwanese leader William Lai congratulated Ms. Takaichi, calling her a “staunch friend of Taiwan.”
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Beijing, which flew bombers around Taiwan over the weekend in a series of “simulated confrontation drills,” has yet to acknowledge Ms. Takaichi’s victory, a break with protocol that could foreshadow a chill in relations.
Ms. Takaichi is flying to South Korea later this week, amid fears there that her stance on Imperial Japan’s actions during the Second World War – seen as insufficiently critical by many in the former Japanese colony – could harm efforts by Washington to encourage closer ties between its two allies.
Ms. Takaichi has described herself as a great fan of South Korean culture, while South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has said he looks forward to working with her.
One issue where both share concerns is North Korea’s military and nuclear buildup. Ahead of the APEC summit this week, Pyongyang tested new ballistic missiles, including what it said was a new hypersonic system.
During his first term, Mr. Trump held a series of historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, brokered by former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, an ally of Mr. Lee’s. After coming closer than ever to signing a peace treaty finally ending the Korean War, discussions fell apart, and the COVID-19 pandemic that followed saw North Korea largely cut itself off from the world, hastening a rapid decline in diplomatic relations with new administrations in both Seoul and Washington.
Inter-Korean ties have frayed to the point that Mr. Lee, a proponent of greater dialogue, has said there is little Seoul can do to bring Pyongyang to the table, describing Mr. Trump as “the only person that can make progress on this issue.”
Speaking to reporters en route to Malaysia, Mr. Trump said he was “open to” the idea of meeting Mr. Kim again.
Securing an official end to the Korean War would add another point in Mr. Trump’s favour when it comes to his oft-stated desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, along with a ceasefire deal he oversaw this weekend between Thailand and Cambodia, following a brief and bloody border spat between the two Southeast Asian nations earlier this year.
“NO WAR! Millions of lives saved,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media Sunday after that deal. “Such an honour to have gotten this done. Now, off to Japan!!!”
With reports from Reuters