CNN
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday there is a “high probability” that US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet this year.
“The odds are high,” Rubio told journalists gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday. “I think both sides want to see it happen.”
Rubio said he could not provide a date for a potential meeting, but said there was a “strong desire on both sides to do that.”
The US diplomat met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday for his first face-to-face meeting with two foreign ministers who are navigating trade frictions and competing for influence in Asia.
The nearly hour-long meeting was “very constructive” and “positive,” Rubio said on local time Friday evening.
“We are two big, powerful countries and there will always be issues we disagree with,” Rubio said, adding, “It was (a) a very constructive and positive meeting, and (() I thought there was a lot to do.”
Rubio and the King were attending a regional meeting in the Malaysian capital this week. There, foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Countries or ASEAN Associations met with regional partners, including Russia, Japan, South Korea and Australia.
The US and China have endured trade relations since Trump took office earlier this year, escalating and subsequently escalating the spat of TIT tariffs caused by the US president’s world trade war and sparring export controls.
Tensions have eased as both sides agreed to a trade framework during negotiations between negotiators in London last month, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said earlier this week that he will meet with his Chinese counterparts to continue the discussion in the coming weeks. The 90-day suspension negotiated between both sides of May has been set to expire in August.
Chinese officials have threatened to condemn US tariffs and retaliate if the US reaches a deal with other trading partners at the expense of Chinese interests.
However, both sides showed that the meeting between King and Rubio was a positive tone and a step towards expanding cooperation between them, not friction but rather a step towards expanding cooperation.
On Friday, Rubio said that meeting with the Wang gave both sides the opportunity to identify areas of cooperation, but did not detail areas of potential cooperation.
“That was our message. We have the opportunity to identify areas where we can achieve strategic stability and work together to build better communication and practical trust,” he said.
China’s Foreign Ministry called Friday’s meeting “positive, practical and constructive” in a statement released after Rubio spoke to the media.
Both sides “agree to strengthen diplomatic channels, communications and dialogue at all levels in all areas,” the statement said. Wang also said that Washington called for viewing China with an “objective, rational and practical attitude” and called for it to be treated in a “equal” way.
Trump’s trade war added a layer of complexity to Rubio’s first trip to Asia as Washington’s top diplomat. The US recently sent letters to many countries announcing tariff fees that are less than a month old unless they attack trade deals with the US.
Eight of ASEAN’s 10 countries, along with South Korea and Japan, will face tariffs from the US on August 1st if the deadline for implementation continues.
It created an opening for the King of Chinese Foreign Ministers, who aims to project a message that China remains a stable economic partner in the region. At a meeting with his ASEAN counterparts on Thursday, Wang said China has always “sees ASEAN as” the “priority” of China’s regional diplomacy.
US government officials position Rubio’s trip as part of an effort to show that China, a major economic partner, is committed to a region that brings friction with a country like the Philippines over invasions in the South China Sea.
“On her first trip to Asia as Secretary of State, Secretary Rubio is focused on reaffirming the US commitment to moving forward in a free, open and safe Indo-Pacific region,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement earlier this week.
On Friday, Rubio said he pushed back the idea that US tariffs could create opportunities for China economically in the region, and that Washington is committed to tackling the “risky trade imbalance” with countries that have accumulated over the past decades.
“We are resetting tariff levels in almost every country in the world,” he told journalists, saying that such imbalances are “unfair to American and American workers.”
Last year, the US notched a $29.5 billion commodity trade deficit with China, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
“I think countries trade with multiple countries. We don’t see this as an opening for anyone. We don’t see it that way. We see it as an opportunity to reset global trade in a fair way for Americans after two or three decades of inequality,” he said.
CNN’s Anna Cooban and Shawn Deng contributed to this report.
