President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US had asked him to delay a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing by “a month or so” because of the ongoing war with Iran.
Trump is expected to travel to China in late March for a meeting with Xi.
But when asked Monday afternoon in the Oval Office if that trip was still on, Trump said, “I don’t know, we’re working on that right now.”
“We’re talking to China. I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I think,” Trump said.
“So, we’ve requested that we delay it by a month or so,” Trump said.
“I’m looking forward to being with him. We have a great relationship,” she said.
“There are no tricks to it,” he said. “It’s very simple. We have a war going on. I think it’s important that I’m here.”
Top Trump administration officials, including Trump himself, had previously telegraphed that an Iran war could derail plans for a high-level summit in China.
Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that the U.S. should help break Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy corridor — China, a top buyer of Iran’s oil exports that has come out against the war.
He told the outlet that waiting to do so after the summit would be too late.
Treasury Scott Besant later appeared to soften those criticisms, telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday morning that any rescheduling of the summit was for logistical reasons.
“It will not be delayed because the president insisted that China police the Strait of Hormuz,” Besant said.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told Fox News later Monday morning that delaying the meeting was “quite possible.”
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(tags to translate) Breaking News: Politics
