Washington/Beijing: U.S. President Donald Trump said he had a “very positive” call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday about trade and security issues even as Beijing warned Washington about arms sales to Taiwan.
Two months before Trump is expected to visit Beijing, Xi agreed to hike soybean purchases from the U.S. to 20 million tons in the current season, up from 12 million tons previously, Trump said. Soybean futures rallied sharply after the announcement. The ailing U.S. farm belt is a major domestic political constituency for Trump and China is a major consumer.
Along with the goodwill gesture, Xi also warned Trump about Taiwan, a source of ongoing tension between the world’s biggest economies.
“The United States must carefully handle arms sales to Taiwan,” Beijing said in an official summary of the meeting.
Trump and Xi’s call was held hours after Xi’s virtual meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“All very positive,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way.”
(Reporting by Xiuhao Chen, Shi Bu and Ryan Woo, editing by Andrew Heavens, Mark Heinrich, Alex Richardson and Chizu Nomiyama )
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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