President Donald Trump has started his weeklong trip to Asia, where he will work to secure a major trade deal with China and possibly meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The three-country Asia tour began over the weekend, with the United States securing trade agreements with Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Trump’s first stop was in Malaysia, where he attended the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and a signing ceremony for the Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire agreement that he helped mediate. The two countries briefly fought in July.
Trump then traveled to Japan on Monday to finalize a trade deal. Upon arriving, he shook hands with Emperor Naruhito. He is expected to meet with Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, later on. Committing to a trade deal with the U.S. would be a monumental moment for the start of her term.
Takaichi, a staunch conservative and the first female prime minister of Japan, has drawn comparisons to the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was a close friend of Trump during his first term.
Reminiscing about his friendship with Abe, the president wished Takaichi well in her new job.
“I hear phenomenal things,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “She was a great ally and friend of Shinzo Abe, who was my friend.”
“I know they were very close, and I think philosophically they were close, which is good,” he said. “That really helps Japan and the United States. I think she’s going to be great.”
Trump will depart on Wednesday for South Korea, the last planned stop of his three-nation tour. While there, he will discuss the possibility of finalizing a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Their meeting, which comes one day before the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, was previously expected to be scrapped after Trump threatened an additional 100% tariff by Nov. 1 in response to China’s export controls on rare earth minerals. Trump suggested he would skip the meeting, but once trade tensions eased, the meeting remained on schedule.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Sunday that the U.S. and China are expected to agree on a trade deal “framework” that will avoid the 100% tariff.
Trump said he is optimistic the U.S. will “come away with a deal” following his meeting with Xi.
He also hopes to visit Beijing in the near future and suggested Xi could visit Washington, D.C., or his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
Regarding the possibility of meeting with Kim, Trump remains open to the idea, partly because it would be easy to add to his schedule, given that South Korea is his last stop.
“I’d love to meet with him, if he’d like to meet,” he said. “I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I liked him, he liked me.” The two have met three times in person.
TRUMP INKS TRADE DEALS ON ASIA TRIP, WITH US-CHINA AGREEMENT CLOSE AHEAD OF XI MEETING
At the beginning of his diplomatic tour, Trump made a pit stop in the Middle East and brought the emir of Qatar and the country’s prime minister onto Air Force One. Trump said it was a “great honor” to host the Qatari leaders.
The appearance followed the signing of the peace deal between Israel and Hamas this month. Because Qatar played a mediating role in ending the conflict, Trump thanked the nation’s leaders.
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