Washington: North Korea and trade are the two biggest issue for discussion with China, US President Donald Trump today said as he landed in Florida to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Trump, in an interaction with reporters abroad Air Force One said the two biggest issues on the trip are “North Korea and trade”.
He was responding to reporters’ questions during a brief interaction that lasted about four minutes.
“I think China will be stepping up,” he said, asked about North Korea.
“We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years. That’s one of the things we are going to be talking about. The other thing of course is going to be North Korea,” Trump said in response to another question.
Trump said that Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan have landed at Palm Beach, Florida to attend the summit. The two leaders would kick off their summit with a banquet at the Mar-a-Lago estate, which of late Trump has been calling as Southern White House, Thursday evening. The First Lady Melania Trump would also attend.
The two leaders are scheduled to have a series of meetings over the next 24 hours. The summit would conclude with a working lunch tomorrow.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump has been asked by various groups to raise the issue of Chinese human rights violations in Tibet and the Chinese currency manipulation, and trade practices that hurt the American economy.
“Throughout your campaign, you promised a get-tough-on- China trade policy and pledged to declare China a currency manipulator on your first day in office. You reiterated that pledge ‘to protect American workers’ in your ‘Contract with the American Voter’, stating that on your first day in office: ‘I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator,'” as many as 90 US Congressmen wrote in a letter to Trump urging him to fix “failed” trade policies with China.
(This story has not been edited by B
PTI