Trump ready to meet with China’s Xi in South Korea, Bessent tells CNBC
Trump ready to meet with China’s Xi in South Korea, Bessent tells CNBC/node/2618991/world
Trump ready to meet with China’s Xi in South Korea, Bessent tells CNBC
US President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and officials from both countries are working to set up a meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday. (AFP/File)
Trump ready to meet with China’s Xi in South Korea, Bessent tells CNBC
Bessent told a CNBC event that officials from both countries were in touch daily to set up the meeting
It was due to trust between Trump and Xi that the trade conflict between the two countries has not escalated further
Updated 15 October 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday insisted that Washington did not want to escalate a trade conflict with China, stressing that President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.
Bessent told a CNBC event that officials from both countries were in touch daily to set up the meeting, and Washington did not want to decouple from the second-largest economy in the world.
He said it was due to trust between Trump and Xi that the trade conflict between the two countries has not escalated further.
JUST IN: Treasury Secretary Bessent says he's optimistic about China and they're in communication with them.
The two countries appeared poised to return to an all-out trade war late last week, after China on Thursday announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls.
Trump responded on Friday by threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple-digit levels, sending financial markets and US-China relations into a tailspin. Bessent and other officials have sought to get ties back on track in a series of interviews this week.
On Wednesday, Bessent said China had clearly intended to take action “all along,” rejecting Beijing’s claim that the actions were a response to US actions. Bessent told CNBC a lower-level Chinese trade official had threatened to “unleash chaos” if the US went ahead with port fees on Chinese ships in August.
“There was a lower-level trade person who was slightly unhinged here in August ... saying that China would unleash chaos on the global system if the US went ahead with our docking fees for Chinese ships,” Bessent said.
US will respond to Rwanda’s violation of peace pact, says Rubio
Waltz told the Security Council meeting that the US “is deeply concerned and increasingly disappointed” by this resurgence of violence
Updated 58 min 34 sec ago
AFP
WASHINGTON: Top US diplomat Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Rwanda had clearly violated the peace agreement it signed with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Washington last week and vowed unspecified “action” in response.
The Rwandan-backed M23 armed group advanced in eastern DRC and seized the key border city of Uvira, just days after the leaders signed the “Washington Accords” on Dec. 4.
Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN. (REUTERS)
“Rwanda’s actions in eastern DRC are a clear violation of the Washington Accords, and the US will take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept,” Secretary of State Rubio wrote on X.
FASTFACT
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned the new offensive ‘has revived the specter of a regional conflagration with incalculable consequences.’
The capture of Uvira, along the border with Burundi, has raised fears that the conflict could escalate into a regional war.
As part of an offensive launched at the beginning of December in South Kivu province, the armed group’s takeover follows its earlier this year capture of Goma and Bukavu, other major cities in the DRC’s mineral-rich east.
On Friday, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of “leading the region toward more instability and toward war.”
“The Rwandan defense forces have provided materiel, logistics, and training support to M23 as well as fighting alongside M23 in DRC with roughly 5,000 to 7,000 troops,” not including possible reinforcements during the latest offensive, Waltz told the UN Security Council.
The Rwandan firepower has included surface-to-air missiles, drones, and artillery, he added.
Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swaths of territory, displacing tens of thousands and leading to a spiraling humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this month, UN experts said Rwanda’s army and the M23 had carried out summary executions and forced mass displacements of people in the region.
Waltz told the Security Council meeting that the US “is deeply concerned and increasingly disappointed” by this resurgence of violence.
The envoy denounced “the scale and sophistication” of Rwanda’s involvement in eastern DRC.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned the new offensive “has revived the specter of a regional conflagration with incalculable consequences.”
“Recent developments pose a serious risk of the progressive fragmentation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly its eastern part,” he said.
Burundi on Friday accused Rwanda of bombing its territory, and its ambassador, Zephyrin Maniratanga, told the council it “reserves the right to use self-defense.”
He warned that if the attacks continue, it would be extremely difficult to avoid an escalation between the two African countries.
“Rwanda is not waging war against the Republic of Burundi and has no intention of doing that,” Ambassador Martin Ngoga said.
Meanwhile, Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner criticized the Security Council for its “lack of action” and called for sanctions against Rwanda.
Despite a resolution adopted in February demanding the withdrawal of Rwandan troops and a ceasefire, “the situation is undeniable: another city has fallen, a parallel administration has consolidated itself, thousands more families have fled, and others have been killed, raped, and terrorized,” she said.
