China’s Xi reiterated Taiwan’s position in talks with Trump, while US president promotes trade

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had a “long and thorough conversation” with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, citing Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s energy purchases and his upcoming visit in April among the main topics of conversation.

Beijing’s statement highlighted Taiwan as the “most important issue” in bilateral relations and called on the US to “carefully handle arms sales to Taiwan.”

China considers Taiwan part of its territory, which the democratically-ruled island has rejected.

Washington approved an $11.15 billion arms sale to Taiwan last December — one of his greatest always — to strengthen the island’s defenses and deter any military aggression by Beijing.

China appears to be reminding Washington “where the red lines are” in an effort to avoid any threat to Trump’s plans to visit China in April, said David Meal, head of China practice at Eurasi Group.

In his interview, Trump highlighted commercial ties between the two countries, including China’s purchases of oil and gas, agricultural products and the supply of aircraft engines.

China has agreed to increase its purchases of American soybeans by 20 million tons this season and 25 million tons next year, Trump said.

“Trump’s ‘transaction-oriented’ mindset should be a gift to Beijing, rather than an ideology-driven approach that is reinforced by coalition building,” said Neo Wang, China macro analyst at Evercore ISI in New York.

US Ambassador to China David Perdue reported In a closed-door meeting in Hong Kong last month, Boeing said it was involved in negotiations ahead of Trump’s visit.

Wang expects a signing ceremony involving 500 Boeing jets, which will be witnessed by the two leaders during Trump’s visit to Beijing.

With the potential plane deal a “major win,” Trump could lift the remaining 10% tariffs on Chinese exports of fentanyl during or shortly after the April meeting, Wang added.

While Trump described the call as a “very good” discussion and called his personal relationship with Xi “very good,” Xi said that “the United States has its concerns and China has its concerns,” but a solution could be found if the two sides “mutually” approach each other.

The two sides did not talk about China’s supply of rare earth minerals – an issue that arose last year after Beijing used its dominance in key minerals to gain leverage and push Trump to play down tariff threats.

This may be a sign that the flow to the US has become “satisfactory,” Wang said. Trump has also sought to increase the US reserves of essential minerals through a new initiative. “Project Warehouse”, Focused on strengthening supply chains to counter China’s dominance in the sector.

Official statements from both sides also played down tensions over Venezuela after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a surprise military operation earlier this year and seized the country’s oil industry.

After the military operation, Trump demanded that Venezuela cut economic ties with several countries, including China, but later softened his tone, saying that Chinese investment was welcome.

Trump’s conversation with Xi Jinping came hours after the meeting with the Chinese president video conference To discuss the geopolitical situation in the region with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Yuri Yshakov, Putin’s adviser on foreign affairs told reporters at a briefing After Xi-Putin’s address, the two leaders sought to align their positions on global flashpoints such as Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

According to official reports, Xi and Putin appeared to project a strong united front, with Moscow citing bilateral ties as an important stabilizing factor at a time of growing global turmoil.

Trump’s conversation with Xi Jinping discussed the “current situation with Iran” ahead of critical talks between Washington and Tehran on Friday, although debate continued over the scope of the talks’ agenda.

The Trump-Xi call will “ask each other how they approach third country issues,” said Meal, who expects tensions in the Middle East to continue ahead of Trump’s visit in April.

Trump has threatened to strike Iran after Tehran’s crackdown on protesters and earlier this week deployed a naval task force, including aircraft carriers, to the region. China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil.

“The broad range of topics covered in the call reflects Trump’s carrot-and-stick approach to China,” said Reva Gudgeon, director of the Rhodium Group, which has sought Beijing’s cooperation in targeting Russian oil exports and bringing Putin to the negotiating table for a peace deal in Ukraine.