President Trump, photographed in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on October 13, heads to Asia on a nearly week-long trip to meet with regional leaders.
Yoan Valat/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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Yoan Valat/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump is heading to Asia for a nearly week-long trip that will include a high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Korea.
The trip will also include visits to Malaysia and Japan; Trump is also expected to meet with leaders of those countries.
Trump’s visit comes at a time of uncertainty in the region and at home, where the prolonged government shutdown remains unresolved. The United States has yet to finalize trade deals with Japan and Korea, and tensions between the United States and China over trade have risen in recent weeks, although Trump insists he will be able to reach a deal with Xi.
There was also A border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia.. That tension has been simmering for years, but erupted over the summer, leaving dozens of civilians and soldiers dead. Both countries agreed to a ceasefire, in part after Trump threatened them with higher tariffs if fighting continued. A negotiated peace agreement is supposed to be signed at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Trump presides over Cambodia-Thai peace deal in Malaysia
A Cambodian Buddhist monk holds a portrait of President Trump while participating in a peace march in Phnom Penh on August 10, following a border conflict with Thailand.
Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images
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Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images
Trump will attend the ASEAN summit for the first time since 2017, where a key constituent will preside over the peace deal.
For several months, the president has been touting his ability to end “infinite” wars around the world, including this conflict in Southeast Asia.
“I have ended seven endless wars. They said they were endless. We will never solve them,” Trump said in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month. “No president or prime minister, and indeed no other country, has ever done anything like that, and I did it in just seven months. It’s never happened before. There’s never been anything like it.”
A U.S. official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity said they do not expect China to participate in the peace agreement signing ceremony because the United States does not believe China played a “significant” or “consequential” role in the peace agreement. although he did participate in the mediations. On Friday night on Air Force One, Trump told reporters that the Chinese “were not involved” in the deal, but they did give credit to Malaysia.
Trump wants to meet with Japan’s new prime minister and talk about trade with Korea
South Korea has also recently dealt with its own tumult, having recently elected President Lee Jae Myung, after Lee’s predecessor declared martial law and was later indicted.
Lee has negotiated some framework trade deal with Trump, but details of the deal have yet to be finalized, including Korea’s commitment to invest 350 billion dollars in the united states
Trump will meet with Lee while in Korea – the first time the two have met in person since a recent ICE raid on a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia resulted in the temporary detention of 300 South Korean workers and shocked Koreans at home.
In addition to trade, Lee and Trump are also likely to talk about North Korea. Lee recently said cnn hopes that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can “engage in dialogue.” Trump said Friday that he was willing to meet with Kim.
“I had a great relationship with him and he probably knows I’m going, right?” he told reporters. “But, if you want to spread the word, I’m open to it.”
While in Japan, Trump will sit down with the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. — the country’s first female prime minister — and will be received by the emperor.
Trump will also deliver remarks on the USS George Washington at the US naval base in Yokosuka.
Trump-Xi meeting may not change the situation
Finally, Trump’s trip will end with a highly anticipated meeting with Xi on October 30, although Beijing has not yet confirmed the meeting.
There have been months of back-and-forth in tariff negotiations between the United States and China that have kept the global economy on edge. Tensions had simmered over the summer when the two countries agreed to de-escalate.
But earlier this month, Beijing caught Trump by surprise by announcing an additional limit on exports of rare earth minerals, which the United States and other countries rely on for military equipment and other technologies.
Chinese President Xi Jinping greets President Trump in June 2019, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka that year.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Trump threatened to cancel his meeting with Xi entirely and raise tariffs.
“This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the leaders of the free world.” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I was going to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now it seems there is no reason to do so.”
Despite China’s recent moves, Trump spoke positively about his relationship with Xi more recently and said he hopes for a “fantastic” deal with China.
However, experts say the meeting will likely be a moment for both countries to buy time.
“I’m not sure that either side is fully prepared to abandon the positions they’ve established,” said Ryan Hass, director of the China Center at Brookings, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington.
He hopes the meeting will result in an extension of the “trade truce” the United States and China agreed to over the summer to “give time and space” to negotiators to finalize a trade deal.