The U.S and China made tremendous progress in bilateral ties during meetings with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump said.
“We have made tremendous progress in our relationship with China,” Mr. Trump said on Friday morning, appearing with Mr. Xi after a round of discussions in Florida. “I think truly progress has been made,” and an “outstanding” relationship had developed between him and Mr. Xi, said Mr. Trump.
The President said he expected additional progress in the future. “Lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.”
Bilateral trade and the threat from North Korea’s nuclear ambitions dominated the talks on the first day of their first summit that was overshadowed by the American military action in Syria on Thursday night. The leaders were scheduled to meet again for lunch on Friday.
“We’ve had a long discussion already, and so far I have gotten nothing, absolutely nothing. But we have developed a friendship — I can see that — and I think long term we are going to have a very, very great relationship and I look very much forward to it,” Mr. Trump had said in a light-hearted comment before the dinner on Thursday in which the President’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband Jared Kushner, who is alos his adviser, sat next to him.
Push for fair trade
Ahead of the talks, U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration would push for fair trade with China, and the interests of American workers were paramount for the President.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Xi urged that the two sides should promote the “healthy development of bilateral trade and investment” and advance talks on a bilateral investment agreement.
“We have a thousand reasons to get China-U.S. relations right, and not one reason to spoil the China-U.S. relationship,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump.
“In the past 40 years, the United States and China have developed deep ties, and this administration is committed to ensuring these ties endure for the next 40 years. We do desire to establish policies that maintain a constructive, cooperative, and results-oriented trajectory. High on the list of our priorities is an economic relationship that is fair on both sides,” Mr. Tillerson said.
The Secretary of State said the U.S was hopeful that China would “find ways to exercise influence over North Korea’s actions to dismantle their nuclear weapons and their missile technology programs.”
