Exclusive | Xi Jinping, Donald Trump agree to talks at G20 summit next month, source says
- China, United States discussing arrangements for meeting on November 29 in Buenos Aires, insiders say
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump have tentatively agreed to meet on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires next month, according to a source.
An initial date has been set for November 29, the day before the summit formally gets under way, the person said on condition of anonymity.
If confirmed, it would be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in nearly a year and suggest both Washington and Beijing were ready to de-escalate the trade tensions.
Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, one of Xi’s top economic aides, told state media on Friday that Beijing and Washington “are contacting each other at present”.
His comments came as Beijing is trying to shore up investor confidence in its stock market and economy. But the impact of the trade war on Chinese stocks was “more psychological than real”, he said.
Neither the White House nor China’s foreign ministry have released details of the leaders’ schedules for the G20 summit.
Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank with close links to the Trump administration, said Trump and Xi “are going to have a meeting unless something happens”.