White House confirms Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea during Asia tour

United States President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a major regional economic summit being held in South Korea next week, the White House has confirmed.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing on Thursday that Trump is scheduled to participate in a “bilateral meeting” with Xi in South Korea on the morning of October 30, before returning to Washington.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit – an inter-governmental forum promoting free trade among 21 economies located around the Pacific Rim – will be held in the city of Gyeongju on October 31 and November 1.

Leavitt did not make clear whether Trump would be attending the APEC summit itself.

Trump earlier confirmed his meeting with Xi, saying on Wednesday that the leaders “have a pretty long meeting scheduled”, before adding that he hoped the superpowers could “work out a lot of our doubts and questions”.

“I think something will work out. We have a very good relationship, but that will be a big one,” Trump said as he answered questions alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte at the White House.

The meeting between Trump and Xi will take place amid escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The US leader has imposed a 30 percent tariff on Chinese imports into the US and threatened higher levies in the near future should a deal not be struck.

Trump also said he will push Xi to stop Chinese companies from purchasing Russian oil, after he imposed his first sanctions on Moscow on Wednesday since returning to the White House.

The sanctions package – which targeted Russia’s two largest oil firms, Rosneft and Lukoil – was the result of Russian President Vladimir Putin refusing “to end this senseless war” in Ukraine, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.