Kuala Lumpur: Trade tensions between the United States and China appeared to cool on Sunday ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with the Chinese government suggesting that a mutual understanding had been reached between the world’s two largest economies.
The talks followed China’s placing limits on the exporting of rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies and Trump’s threat of an additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods. The conflict has been poised to weaken economic growth worldwide.
China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters that the two sides had reached a “preliminary consensus” on areas of dispute and would seek to further stabilise the relationship. Trump also expressed confidence that an agreement was at hand.
“They want to make a deal and we want to make a deal,” he said. Trump reiterated his plan to visit China in the future and suggested that Xi could come to Washington or Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida.
The announcement came at the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, hosted in Kuala Lumpur, with Trump seeking to burnish his reputation as an international dealmaker.
Yet the path to those deals has involved serious disruptions at home and abroad, with his tariff hikes scrambling the global economy and a US government shutdown that has him feuding with Democrats.
Ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia
At the summit, Thailand and Cambodia signed an expanded ceasefire agreement on Sunday during a ceremony attended by Trump, whose threats of economic pressure prodded the two nations to halt skirmishes along their disputed border earlier this year.
Thailand will release Cambodian prisoners, and Cambodia will begin withdrawing heavy artillery as part of the first phase of the deal. Regional observers will monitor the situation to ensure fighting doesn’t restart. “We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” Trump said. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet called it a “historic day,” and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace.”
East Timor joins ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations welcomed East Timor as its newest member Sunday, which its prime minister said was a “dream realised” for the tiny nation. Meanwhile, Cambodia and Thailand signed an agreement expanding a ceasefire on their borders with the hope it will lead to a lasting peace.
“Today, history is made,” Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao told the other leaders as the flag of East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, was added to the other 10 on the stage at a formal ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.
It was ASEAN’s first expansion since the 1990s and was more than a decade in the making.“For the people of Timor Leste, this is not only a dream realised, but a powerful affirmation of our journey — one marked by resilience, determination and
hope,” he said.
The ceremony marked the opening of ASEAN’s annual summit .