Trump asks China to delay summit with Xi by a month due to Iran war

By Hadriana Lowenkron

 

President Donald Trump requested a delay to his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for about a month, saying it was important for him to remain in Washington to oversee the Iran war. 

“We’re working on that right now. We’re speaking to China. I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here,” Trump said Monday during a White House event when asked about potentially rescheduling the high-profile summit. The meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies is currently set to begin later this month.

 

“I have to be here, I feel. And so we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so, and I’m looking forward to being with them. We have a very good relationship,” he continued. “But because of the war— there’s no tricks to it either. It’s just, it’s not like, ‘Oh gee, I’m waiting.’ It’s very simple. We got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here. So it could be that we delay a little bit, not much.”

 

 

Trump had heralded his plan to meet Xi during the trip from March 31 to April 2 as a key milestone in the relationship. Teams from the two countries met in Paris in recent days to hammer out potential areas of agreement, including on Chinese investment in the US and exports of advanced semiconductors. 

 

But the war has overshadowed Trump’s other priorities, especially with Iran’s move to block the Strait of Hormuz sending the price of oil above $100 a barrel. Trump has sought to raise pressure on other economies to provide resources to help secure the strait and ensure the safe passage of tankers and other vessels amid a global energy supply chain crunch.