U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are preparing for a critical meeting later this week. There they will meet in South Korea to address urgent and pressing diplomatic issues. This meeting comes on the heels of their last encounter in November 2017, which ended with a handshake in Beijing. Those initial conversations were a promising start to making progress on the many pressing issues that threaten to derail the relationship between the two global powers.
The first Trump-Xi meeting in April 2017 was also a watershed event in defining the future of U.S.-China relations. Held in Beijing, the dialogue aimed at building understanding and dialogue around mounting economic and geopolitical pressures on both countries. The handshake that sealed the end of that meeting also represented a promise to continue these important discussions with collaboration and cooperation.
Planning for the next meeting this coming April in South Korea is already underway. These negotiators from both sides are working hard to very seriously to continue that advance in Malaysia. The negotiators have fought hard to establish a productive and collaborative framework for discussions. We aim to help facilitate the kind of extraordinary constructive dialogue that happened in the last summit.
With the meeting date fast approaching, both leaders’ teams are intensifying their efforts. They’re emphasizing the importance of addressing other key issues, such as our trade policies, security concerns and regional tension. The results of the negotiations could have significant implications for not only the United States and China but for global markets and international relations.
That handshake between Trump and Xi in 2017 has returned to the spotlight as the world waits in hope that their second talks will go better. This striking visual reminder serves as an important reminder, reminding us of the role of personal diplomacy even within such highly complicated bilateral relations.