China's president praises US for 'deepening our friendship' after meeting Trump
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
China’s President Xi Jinping and his delegation have left US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, concluding a 24-hour visit that defied expectations among some analysts that a meeting so soon into Trump’s tenure risked damaging relations between the world’s two largest countries.
While details on what the two sides discussed are thin, Trump would seem to have avoided the antagonistic stance he maintained towards China during and immediately after his presidential campaign. Moreover, comments by Xi suggest that a US military strike against Syria, ordered by Trump shortly before the two presidents met, didn’t sour the friendly tone of the summit.
"President Trump made excellent preparations for our country’s representatives and gave us a warm reception," Xi said before departing Mar-a-Lago, according to Chinese media.
"We recently have had in-depth and lengthy communications to this end and arrived at many common understandings, the most important being deepening our friendship and building a kind of trust in keeping with the Sino-US working relationship and friendship."
Trump informed Xi of his country’s missile strikes against Syria’s military as his dinner with the Chinese leader at Mar-a-Lago concluded, more than four hours after Trump gave the strike order, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters covering the two leaders’ summit in Florida.
Robert S. Price/Courtesy U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS
Trump issued the strike order at 4.00 pm (EDT) Thursday (4 am HKT on Friday, April 7), after two days of consultations with US Defence Secretary James Mattis and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who are with Trump in Florida, as well as his Joint Chiefs of Staff and other members of his national security team, Spicer said.
The US Navy fired more than 50 missiles from destroyers patrolling the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in retaliation for a chemical attack Tuesday against civilians in the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikoun.
The timing of events, as explained by Spicer, suggest that Trump informed some foreign leaders and congressional leaders before he told Xi. Spicer declined to specify which foreign leaders and members of Congress were informed first.
US officials have accused President Bashar Assad’s forces of carrying out the chemical attack, which killed more than 70 people, including women and children, in Syria.
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