‘Fantastic Friendship For A Long Time’: Trump Praises China’s Xi, Calls Him Respected, Distinguished

Last Updated:October 30, 2025, 08:43 IST

Speaking at the meeting, Trump said, “It’s a great honour to be with a friend of mine, really for a long time now — the very, very distinguished and respected President of China.”

US President Donald Trump praised his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, calling him “a great leader of a great country” and describing their ties as a “fantastic friendship.”

Speaking during their meeting, Trump said, “It’s a great honour to be with a friend of mine, really for a long time now — the very, very distinguished and respected President of China. We’ve already agreed to a lot of things, and we’ll agree to some more right now, but President Xi is a great leader of a great country, and I think we’re going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time.”

Responding to Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping said it was a “great pleasure” to meet him again after several years. “President Trump, it is a great pleasure to meet you, and it feels very warm seeing you again because it’s been many years,” Xi said. He noted that since Trump’s re-election, the two leaders had spoken on the phone three times, exchanged several letters, and maintained close contact. “Under our joint guidance, China-US relations have remained stable on the whole. Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then,” Xi added.

Also Read: ‘We Do Not Always See Eye To Eye’: China’s Xi Talks Of ‘Frictions’ As He Meets Trump In South Korea

Xi further told Trump that while the two countries might not always agree, they should aim to remain “partners and friends.” “China and the US can jointly shoulder our responsibility as major countries and work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and the whole world,” Xi said as talks began in South Korea’s Busan.

The meeting between Trump and Xi, their first in several years, took place on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, at a South Korean air base. The two leaders focused on efforts to ease trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, the talks drew global attention as both nations signalled a potential thaw in strained US-China relations.

The high-stakes meeting came after months of economic friction, with both sides seeking to stabilise relations strained by Trump’s renewed tariff measures and China’s retaliatory restrictions on rare earth exports. Ahead of the talks, US officials indicated that Trump was unlikely to follow through on his threat to impose an additional 100 per cent import tax on Chinese goods, while Beijing appeared willing to make concessions by easing export controls and resuming soybean purchases from the United States.

Abhro Banerjee

Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, including elections and bu…Read More

Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, including elections and bu… Read More

Read More