Xi Jinping Arrives In US For 3-Day Visit To Rare Airport Reception By Trump

Washington: US President Donald Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday (local time) for the latter's three-day state visit to the United States at the invitation of US President.

 

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived at Washington's Joint Base Andrews to welcome Xi Jinping and Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan as part of the official state visit.

 

China and the US should be partners, not rivals, Chinese President Xi Jinping asserted upon his arrival in Washington on Wednesday, and voiced confidence that the two can find a right way to get along in the new era.

China and the US are both great countries, and the two peoples are both great peoples, Xi said in written speech, state run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in the United States for a high-profile state visit, (White House Youtube)

In a rare gesture, US President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, when they landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday.

 

Xi noted that he and Trump had agreed to build a China-US relationship of strategic stability during Trump's visit to China in May, which has provided guidance for the future development of bilateral ties.

 

China and the US should work in the same direction, promote a stable relationship featuring cooperation as the mainstay, moderate competition, manageable differences, and promises of peace, Xi said.

 

Xi’s visit marks his second summit with Trump in less than six months. Talks with Trump are expected to cover trade, technology, critical minerals, and broader US-China relations. Notably, the current US-China tariff truce, agreed at the Busan summit last October, is due to expire in November, and officials said its future, along with existing chip export licences, would be discussed, though no outcome has been pre-decided. Washington has ruled out trading away its export controls on rare earth flows in exchange for concessions, officials said, while confirming discussions are under way about reducing tariffs on a narrow band of “non-strategic” goods that could benefit both economies.

 

Artificial intelligence is also expected to be a central topic, building on ideas not yet agreed upon, such as previewing new AI models between the two countries or extending oversight to Chinese open-source systems. US officials declined to detail a firm negotiating position ahead of the leaders’ meeting.

 

On other contentious fronts, officials said Washington continues to press Beijing over the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals to cartels in Mexico and that Trump is expected, based on past patterns, to again raise the cases of Americans held in Chinese prisons.

 

The visit, detailed by senior US officials on a background briefing call, follows Trump’s own trip to Beijing in May, when Xi hosted him at the Great Hall of the People, and the two leaders agreed to what they called a “constructive, strategic and stable relationship". Trump is now expected to reciprocate with full state-visit honours.