Donald Trump has set off for a tour of Asia where he is expected to take part in high-stakes trade talks with China’s leader, Xi Jinping – telling reporters he was also open to a meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.
Trump, who left Washington on Friday night, is set for a five-day trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first visit to the region since taking office in January. He is due to arrive in Malaysia on Sunday morning local time.
Trump is to meet Xi on the final day of his trip, hoping to seal a deal to end the bruising trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
On Saturday, economic officials from the US and China met in Kuala Lumpur to prepare for the meeting and to have preliminary talks on the key issues in the escalating tariff war.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he hoped for a “very good meeting” with Xi, adding that he expected China to make a deal to avoid 100% tariffs taking effect on 1 November.
As he left Washington, Trump added fuel to the speculation that while on the Korean peninsula he could meet Kim for the first time since 2019.
“I would. If you want to put out the word, I’m open to it,” Trump said aboard the presidential plane. “I had a great relationship with him.”
Regarding North Korea’s demand to be recognised as a nuclear state as a precondition for dialogue with Washington, Trump replied: “Well, I think they are sort of a nuclear power.
“When you say they have to be recognised as a nuclear power, well, they got a lot of nuclear weapons, I’ll say that.”
The two leaders met three times during Trump’s first term. Kim has said he would also be open to meeting the US president if Washington dropped its demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear arsenal.
South Korea’s reunification minister said on Friday there was a “considerable” chance that Trump and Kim would meet while the US leader was in South Korea, and CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported last weekend that US officials had discussed setting up a meeting during Trump’s visit.
Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for Asia. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
However, before he left the US on Friday, US officials sought to tamp down on the speculation, telling reporters there was currently no plan to meet the North Korea leader.
Trump’s first stop will be Malaysia, for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit. There he is expected to sign a trade deal with Malaysia and oversee the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia.
He said he also expected to meet the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the sidelines of the summit to improve ties after months of bad blood.
Trump’s next destination will be Tokyo, where he will meet Sanae Takaichi, named this week as Japan’s first female prime minister. The new leader is expected to follow through on plans from her predecessor to increase military spending and make $550bn in investments in the US.
But the highlight of the trip is expected to be South Korea, with Trump due to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, and where he is expected to meet Xi for the first time since his return to office.
Global markets will be watching to see if the two men can halt the trade war sparked by Trump’s sweeping tariffs earlier this year, especially after a recent dispute over Beijing’s rare earth curbs.
Trump initially threatened to cancel the meeting and announced the fresh 100% tariffs during that row, before saying he would go ahead after all.
On Wednesday, the US secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, said the meeting between the two leaders would be a “pull-aside” – a meeting on the sidelines of the conference. But Trump later said they would have a “pretty long meeting” so that they could “work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together”.
An interim agreement could include limited relief on tariffs, an extension of current rates, or China committing to buy US soya beans and US-made Boeing planes. Beijing reneged on similar promises in a 2020 deal with Trump.
Trump warned he could raise tariffs on Chinese imports to as much as 155% starting from 1 November if the two countries could not agree a trade deal.
Beyond trade, the two leaders are expected to discuss Taiwan and Russia, a Chinese ally now subject to expanded US sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Before departing the White House on Friday, Trump told reporters he expected the Taiwan issue to be raised during his talks with Xi.
Trump also said he would probably raise the issue of releasing Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. Lai is serving a prison sentence in Hong Kong under Beijing-imposed national security laws.
“It’s on my list. I’m going to ask … We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
