 "US President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) are set to hold a telephonic conversation. File image/AP")
US President Donald Trump is slated to hold a telephonic conversation with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Friday at 9 am Washington time (6:30 pm IST). What makes the call significant is the fact that this will be the first time the leaders of the world’s largest economies will be engaging with each other since June.
According to a Bloomberg report, the two leaders will be discussing ‘3Ts’: Tariffs, Taiwan and the future of ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok app. The call is being seen as a watershed moment for both sides and will be watched closely all around the world.
The call is also expected to indicate whether Trump and Xi will agree to hold their first face-to-face meeting since Trump returned to the White House. Earlier this week, negotiators from the two nations reached a framework deal to preserve the US operation of TikTok under the national security law.
What the arrangement entails
Under the framework, the two nations agreed that the US operations of the app would be acquired by a consortium that includes Oracle Corp., Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC, Bloomberg reported.
However, the full scope of the plan is not clear, and the officials have said that Trump and Xi will need to finalise it during their conversation. Earlier, Trump had said that the US arm of the app could be worth tens of billions of dollars. “I hate to see value like that thrown out the window,” he said Tuesday in Washington before departing for the UK.
It is important to note that the Friday call between the two leaders also came amid a detente between Washington and Beijing that saw the countries claw back spiralling tit-for-tat tariffs imposed earlier this year that spooked markets and raised worries of a global downturn. The current 90-day pause on tariffs on Chinese goods, following a prior extension, will run into early November.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOther issues that could arise during the discussion include export controls over rare earth minerals that are critical to cutting-edge US tech firms, as well as a potential Chinese order for Boeing Co. jets. The phone call is also coming at a time when Trump has urged American allies to put economic pressures on countries purchasing oil from Russia amid the war in Ukraine. China and India are at the centre of Trump’s latest tirade.