*** Trump, Xi hold trade call | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Trump, Xi hold trade call

AFP | Washington

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

US President Donald Trump held a long-awaited phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday as the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies tried to avoid an allout trade war.

Trump said that the call reached a “very positive conclusion” and that they agreed to meet in person -- but Beijing issued a more muted readout saying that Xi spoke of a need to “correct the course” of ties. The call -- the first to be publicly announced since Trump returned to power in January -- comes after Beijing and Washington had accused each other of jeopardizing a trade war truce agreed last month in Geneva.

“The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding that US and Chinese trade teams would hold a new meeting “shortly.”

“President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated. As Presidents of two Great Nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing,” Trump added.

Trump said they would announce the time and place of the “soon to be meeting” later. The two leaders did not, however, discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump said, despite long-standing US hopes that Beijing could exert influence on Moscow to end the war.

“The conversation was focused almost entirely on TRADE,” said Trump, adding that they hoped to have resolved issues over crucial rare earth minerals used in tech products.

Relations between superpower rivals Beijing and Washington have been fraught ever since Trump in April introduced sweeping worldwide tariffs that targeted China most heavily of all.