U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping failed to make breakthroughs on trade and other key issues, but it has been evaluated as an opportunity to confirm their willingness to manage bilateral relations in a stable fashion, U.S. experts said on May 15.
U.S. President Trump wrapped up a three-day state visit to China on May 15. The latest summit came about six months since the APEC Summit in Busan last October.
The two leaders’ one-on-one on the sidelines of the APEC Summit focused on trade, but the latest summit took up global issues, such as the U.S. war with Iran, Taiwan and pending trade issues.
The two leaders failed to issue a joint statement and did not agree on key issues following a 135-minute summit.
Chinese President Xi warned that the mishandling of the Taiwan issue could collide or even come into conflict, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.
The U.S.’s readout omitted the topic. In a statement, the White House said both sides agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz and no nuclear arms possessed by Iran.
The Chinese side said both nations exchanged views on the Middle East situation.
Both countries displayed an amicable mood by stressing a need for bilateral cooperation.
Messages on stabilizing U.S.-Chinese relations and economic cooperation have emerged substantially, but thorny issues, such tariffs, trade and Taiwan remain unresolved, according to U.S. experts’ analyses.
But American experts have seen that the U.S. and Chinese leaders’ have a personal bond, and repeated summit diplomacy could serve as a significant way to manage relations of the two superpowers.
In a statement sent to Yonhap News Agency, Patrick M. Cronin, the Asia-Pacific Security Chair at Hudson Institute, said the latest U.S.-Chinese summit not only served as an opportunity to raise China’s standing, but also give an overall sense of relief over the U.S.-Chinese rivalry.
China’s presenting “constructive and strategic stable relations” as a new framework of mutual relations seems to talk about “mutual respect”. It was not enormous, but a welcome one, he said.
Another U.S. expert said now that U.S.-Chinese conflict has entered a manageable phase, Asian countries, including Korea, were evaluated to be relieved when it came to economic uncertainties to some extent.
In a statement sent to Yonhap, Patricia Kim, a fellow for the Center for East Asia Policy Studies in the Brookings Institution, said Asian countries were likely to be relieved over a possible trade détente since the United States and China have maintained amicable relations and an additional U.S.-Chinese summit is scheduled to take place this year, and Korea and other U.S. allies, being under hard pressure whenever the U.S.-Chinese tensions have been intensified, will likely be relaxed to some extent.
Wendy Cutler, Senior Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) said economic achievements the latest summit brought fell far short of expectations.
She welcomed both sides’ efforts to stabilize their relations, but noted that the two countries failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire on their trade conflict, to be expired in five months.
In a related development, the White House said on May 17 the two leaders confirmed the goal of denuclearizing North Korea during their summit talks.
The White House released a fact sheet on the outcomes of the latest U.S.-Chinese summit in which President Trump and President Xi confirmed their shared goal of denuclearizing North Korea.
The goal was not included in a format of their joint statement, but the fact that the two leaders mentioned it could indicate a possibility both sides would have discussed the issue with prior meetings in a diplomatic perspective.
Experts said the United States seemed to have maintained a strong stance against North Korea’s nuclear issue to justify the purpose of its attack on Iran, cited as preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The fact sheet of the White House also said the two leaders shared the view that Iran cannot possess nuclear arms.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it evaluated the two leaders’ “constructive discussions” on the Korean Peninsula issue.
It said the South Korean government maintains the goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and will redouble efforts to make a progress on solving the North Korean nuclear issue through close cooperation with the international community, such as the United States and China.
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