Trump explained U.S. position on THAAD to Xi – S.Korea

The US president had said he meant to raise concerns about China’s trade practices and press Xi to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions during his visit to the Spanish-style Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, though no major deals on either issue are expected.

Trump advisers said the goal, at least from the US side, was to increase American exports to China.

The meeting was the first face-to-face communication between the heads of states since the new US administration took office, said Wang, noting that the two presidents spent over seven hours in discussion on China-US ties and major worldwide, regional issues of mutual concern, reaching important consensus. North Korea has vowed to bolster its defenses to protect itself against airstrikes like the ones Trump ordered against an air base in Syria.

After the meeting, Trump took Xi on a walk around the manicured grounds of his lavish Spanish-style complex.

Tillerson said that Xi, at his summit with Trump, signaled a willingness to do more to rein in North Korea.

Trump days before meeting Xi warned that the U.S. was prepared to act unilaterally to stop North Korea’s nuclear advances should China be unwilling to use its leverage over Pyongyang.

South Korea’s deployment of a USA missile defence system loathed by Beijing will also be high on Mr Wu’s agenda, Yonhap news agency said.

State-run Chinese tabloid Global Times said the meeting “served as an indicator that the China-U.S. relationship is still very much on course since the Trump administration took office in January”, and it was likely the two nations would develop a more “pragmatic relationship”.

– Agreed to draw up a 100-day plan to reduce the USA trade deficit with China.

But the two leaders did not hold a press conference.

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”.

In a briefing on the outcome of the summit, Tillerson added that while the two leaders focused on both countries’ commitments to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, there “was no kind of a package arrangement discussed to resolve this”.

But there was no accommodation of Mr Trump’s demand that China increase pressure on North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has long claimed that the United States is preparing to conduct similar precision strikes against its territory or even launch an all-out invasion.

USA security concerns with China also focus on Beijing’s expansive territorial claims in the strategic South China Sea.

In diplomatic terms it was more sweet seduction than summit, long mapped out by the Chinese who have resisted Trump provocations during the U.S. election campaign and since he was sworn in.

The talks were overshadowed by Trump’s decision to launch USA missile strikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation for President Bashar al-Assad’s deadly chemical weapons attack on civilians.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea off the Korean Peninsula earlier this week, the latest in a series of recent test firings.

Tillerson insisted that Xi was not rattled by Trump’s decision: “President Xi expressed an appreciation for the president letting him know and providing the rationale and said, as it was told to me, he understood that such a response is necessary when people are killing children”.

Other than American beef, it remains to be seen what China will get back in trade negotiations.

North Korea is known for its exaggerated and belligerent rhetoric in response to world events. North Korea is developing missiles capable of hitting the United States.

“We assess that they were relatively successful talks that laid the groundwork for cooperation between the two leaders and the development of the U.S”.

Trump will soon review options for removing the “threat” posed by North Korea, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Sunday.

McMaster described the USA decision to send the Carl Vinson Strike Group to safeguard US interests in the Western Pacific as “prudent”.