President Donald Trump will hold a make-or-break trade meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit this week and also navigate a diplomatic minefield with Russia's president after unrest in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday.
Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a working dinner at the Group of 20 summit that runs Friday and Saturday.
Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it."
But Kudlow warned that if China holds out against US demands, Washington could ramp up the trade war.
"If need be, if things don't work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs."
The issue is the biggest looming over Trump's visit to Argentina, with the two economic giants locked in exchanges of punitive tariffs and Washington effectively threatening to target all remaining Chinese imports, including Apple products made in China.
Despite Kudlow's repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism, he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to impose on Beijing.
"China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US economy in far better shape than China's to weather a prolonged trade war.
"We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well," he said.
China will have to give way on "fairness and reciprocity," he said, warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China's forced technology transfers "must be solved."
- Cancel Putin summit? -
Trump is also to meet separately with Russia's Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Argentina, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, White House officials said.
His talks with Putin present an especially tricky task -- and may be cancelled at the last minute over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the latest episode of a long-simmering military confrontation.
US-Russia relations are under huge strain, while Trump is under investigation at home for alleged collusion with Moscow during his 2016 presidential election win.
Complicating the already complex diplomatic landscape, Russia shot at Ukrainian ships and captured three vessels on Sunday, prompting the government in Ukraine to accuse Moscow of preparing for "full-scale war."
Trump told The Washington Post on Tuesday that "maybe I won't have the meeting." He said he would wait for the results of a report from his national security team before deciding.
Trump's last summit with Putin, in Helsinki in July 2018, prompted an outpouring of criticism that the US president had failed to hold his Russian counterpart to account over what US intelligence services have concluded was deliberate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 elections.
There are no plans, the White House says, for Trump to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.
The CIA reportedly has told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties to the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump has dismissed this, prompting an outcry from opponents and even some allies in Congress.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders indicated that an informal meeting may yet happen.
"I wouldn't say we've ruled out any interaction," she said, although she stressed that "the president's schedule is pretty packed."
China's Xi arrives in Spain for business-driven visit
Madrid (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 - China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a business-focused state visit as Beijing, currently engaged in a trade war with the United States, seeks to strengthen ties with Europe.
Xi accepted a bouquet of red flowers from children after disembarking from the Air China plane.
He later met King Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia on Tuesday evening at the Zarzuela palace on the outskirts of Madrid and will hold talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday.
No press conference is scheduled during his three-day visit, which is a stop-off on his trip to a meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Argentina.
"Spain is an important member of the EU; it is also China's good friend and good partner in the EU. We hope and believe that Spain will continue to play a positive role in the EU for the sound and steady growth of China-EU relations," Xi wrote in a column published in conservative Spanish daily newspaper ABC.
It is the first state visit to Spain by a Chinese president in 13 years. The visit comes as the two countries celebrate the 45th year of ties.
Both sides will sign at least 18 business and cooperation deals, including one that further opens up the lucrative Chinese market to Spanish products such as its treasured "jamon" cured ham which is much prized in the Asian country, the Spanish government said.
The world's top pork consumer, China has started getting a serious taste for "jamon" which is sold there as a luxury product.
- Rising Spanish exports -
Spanish companies are hoping to expand their exports to the Chinese market.
China is Spain's largest trading partner outside the European Union.
While Spanish exports to China increased last year by 28.3 percent, it still has a trade deficit of 19.4 billion euros ($22.1 billion), a 2.3 percent increase over the previous year, according to Spanish foreign ministry figures.
"It is a market where we have to be more and more present, and this trip opens the opportunity for us to be able to talk about issues both from the public sector and from the private sector that will deepen these relationships," Spain's secretary of state for commerce, Xiana Margarida Mendez Bertolo, said at the first meeting of a new forum for Spanish and Chinese businesses in Madrid.
Spain, however, will not sign on to China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" initiative that seeks to better link Asia and Europe, a senior government official said Tuesday ahead of Xi's arrival.
The multi-billion-dollar initiative, unveiled by Xi in 2013, aims to link the continents through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks.
- Influence grab? -
Beijing plans to develop the network through 65 countries representing an estimated 60 percent of the world's population and a third of its economic output.
So far, around 70 countries have signed a memorandum of understanding pledging their interest in the project -- an agreement that Beijing values as it seeks to expand the concept.
In Europe, countries such as Poland and Greece have signed but the project has created considerable anxiety that it masks an attempted Beijing influence grab.
Xi will stop off in Portugal on December 4-5 on his way back to China from Argentina.
At the Group of 20 summit Xi is due to meet with US President Donald Trump, who has imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets.
China responded by slapping tariffs on $110 billion in US goods.
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NATO demands Russia free seized Ukrainian ships
Brussels (AFP) Nov 26, 2018
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Monday demanded Russia free Ukrainian ships and sailors held after clashes off Crimea, warning Moscow that "its actions have consequences". Russia fired on and then seized three Ukrainian ships on Sunday, accusing them of illegally entering its waters in the Sea of Azov, in a dramatic spike in tensions that raises fears of a wider escalation. Stoltenberg held phone talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko before officials from the two sides held emergency ta ... read more
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