Donald Trump and Xi Jinping put their professed friendship to the test on November 9 as the least popular US president in decades and the newly empowered Chinese leader met for tough talks on trade and North Korea. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / THOMAS PETER
(Eagle News) — United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping both promised greater cooperation and stronger friendship between the two countries when they met for the first time in Beijing, China.
Xi and his first lady, warmly welcomed Trump who was with First Lady Melania Trump in Beijing.
China’s sincere welcome for US President was marked with regal fluorish, rolling out the red carpet for Trump at the Forbidden City, which was the ancient home of China’s emperors.
China has been keen to show the importance it places on Trump’s visit, the first by a foreign leader since the end of a key Communist Party Congress last month where Xi cemented his power. The welcoming ceremony outside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People was broadcast live on state television — unprecedented treatment for a visiting leader.
Trump himself said he was impressed and grateful with how he was received by China in the Forbidden City.
He said the US-China friendship has a “great, great potential for the future” and that he hoped to have “stronger relations with China.
Trump also said that he sees a closer and stronger friendship and “relationship between the people of our two countries.”
China and the United States signed more than $250 billion in business deals during the US President’s visit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Thursday.
The deals range from billions in Chinese soybean imports to major projects like the development and export of liquified natural gas from Alaska.
“To keep opening up is our long term strategy. We will not narrow or close our doors. We will open them wider and wider,” Xi told an audience of business executives.
A lot of goodwill has been generated between the two countries during US President Trump’s first state visit to China.
Trump will wrap up his trip in China on Friday (November 10) and head to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, before ending his Asia tour with a final stop at the Philippines for the ASEAN Summit.
(with reports from AFP, Reuters)