October 30, 2025 : United States President Donald Trump met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a much awaited meeting in South Korea on Thursday morning (local time) on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Both the leaders shook hands as they met, shared smiles and posed for cameras.
“We’re going to have a very successful meeting, I have no doubt,” said Donald Trump.
“But he is a very tough negotiator, that’s not good,” Trump added.
This is the first time both the leaders are meeting since during Trump’s second term in the White House. Last time they met was in 2019 in Japan on the sidelines of G20 during Trump’s first term as the US President.
Later, as the meeting between the two leaders along with their teams kickstarted on Thursday, Trump called Xi Jinping a “friend” of his “for a long time now”.
“The very very distinguished and respected President of China and we will be having some discussions, I think we have already agreed to a lot of things and we will agree to some more right now. But President Xi is a great leader of a great country and I think we’re going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time — and it’s an honor to have you with us,” the US President said.
While Trump was accompanied by US state secretary Marco Rubio and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick at the table, Xi Jinping was accompanied by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi along with other dignitaries.
The much-awaited high-stakes meeting between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies comes at a crucial time as both the nations are seeking to thaw trade ties particularly amid the recent trade war.
While boarding Air Force One en route to South Korea on Wednesday, Trump had indicated that he could lower tariffs on China as he believes “they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation.”
About Nvidia, he said that “we’ll be speaking about Blackwells”, describing the AI processor chip as “super duper”.
Summary:
Donald Trump held a high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, describing him as a “great friend,” as both leaders explore possibilities for a trade truce to ease tensions and boost economic ties.