The U.S. president will travel to Beijing on May 14 and 15 for an official visit that had been postponed due to the U.S. conflict with Iran, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt announced today, the 26th.
“President [Donald] Trump’s long-awaited meeting with [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] in China will now take place in Beijing on May 14 and 15,” Leavitt said at a press conference.
When asked by reporters whether the date had been set with an eye toward a possible end to the conflict with Iran, the White House spokesperson suggested that it had.
“We always estimated [the war to end in] approximately four to six weeks (…) you can do the math,” she said, addressing a reporter, adding that there had been a conversation between Trump and Xi, who understood the reasons for the postponement.
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The visit, which had been scheduled for late March or early April, was postponed at the request of Donald Trump, who said he wanted to be in the U.S. to monitor U.S. military operations against Iran.
Last week, the Republican president had said he planned to visit China in “five or six weeks.” “We have a very good working relations with China, so we’ll be going there in five or six weeks,” Trump told reporters at the White House on March 17.
“I want to be here [in Washington] because of the war [in the Middle East]. I have to be here, I feel,” he said, adding that he had asked China to postpone the visit by about a month.
If it takes place, this will be Trump’s second visit to the Asian country, following the one in 2017 during his first presidential term (2017–2021). The two leaders last met in October of last year in South Korea.
