US President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea on October 30. The diplomatic huddle proved to be fruitful, at least in terms of breaking a deadlock on tariff negotiations.
The discussions resulted in decisions on rare earths trade, China's fentanyl output and further bilateral meetings in the future.
The war in Ukraine also came up during the talks, but not much was disclosed. Trump only said the US and China are going to work together to stop it. Notably, China's mounting tensions with Taiwan were not discussed.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese government after what was the leaders' first face-to-face meeting since 2019 and a key point in their trade battle that has rattled markets and snarled supply chains.
Trump added that the deal included China immediately buying "tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products", a key issue for Trump's support in farm country and a point of leverage for Beijing.
The US leader said the talks yielded an extendable one-year deal on China's supply of crucial rare earths, materials that are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries.
"All the rare earths has been settled, and that's for the world," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Beijing had announced in early October additional controls on the export of rare earths, a sector where China is hugely dominant.
"On fentanyl we agreed that he was going to work very hard to stop the flow... I put a 20-percent tariff on China because of the fentanyl coming in... and based on his statements today I am going to reduce that by 10 percent," Trump said.
Minutes before meeting Xi, Trump wrote on Truth Social that "because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis".
Trump added that in terms of nuclear weapons stockpiles, China was a "distant third" behind the United States and Russia "but will be even in 5 years".
The comments came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, in defiance of US warnings.
It was not immediately clear if Trump was referring to doing test nuclear explosions, something the United States last did in 1992, or testing weapons capable of carrying atomic warheads.
