Sawt Falasteen - Trump expects 'great meeting' with Xi

The US leader said he expected their first face-to-face meeting of his second term scheduled on Thursday to result in the United States lowering tariffs imposed on China in relation to fentanyl.

"I think we're going to have a great meeting with President Xi of China, and a lot of problems are going to be solved," Trump said en route to South Korea where he is due to meet with Xi, saying he is "optimistic".

"We have been talking to them, we're not just walking into the meeting cold... I think we're going to have a very good outcome for our country and for the world actually," he said on Air Force One.

He also said he was "not sure" whether he would discuss the sensitive topic of self-ruling Taiwan during his meeting with the Chinese leader.

Trump's visit to key US ally South Korea is the third leg of an Asia tour that has seen him lavished with praise and presents at a regional summit in Malaysia and by Japan's new premier in Tokyo.

But the eyes of the world -- and of global markets -- will be on the talks set for Thursday, the first time in six years Trump sits down with Xi.

It could determine whether the United States and China can halt a trade war that has sent international supply chains into panic.

Negotiators from Beijing and Washington have both confirmed a "framework" has been agreed.

It is now up to Trump and Xi to nail it down during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju where Trump arrived Wednesday.

William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said however that there appeared to be a "mismatch" in expectations.

The United States "is eager to reach any trade deal that Trump could declare as a victory", while China is focused on "building more mutual trust, managing longstanding differences, and steadying the bilateral trade relationship", he added.

- 'Complicated' -

In Japan, new conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hailed a "golden age" in bilateral ties.

Takaichi heaped praise on Trump, saying she would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize and giving him a golf club owned by assassinated former premier Shinzo Abe, a close friend of the US president.

In Korea, Trump disembarked at Busan and was greeted by a South Korean military band playing "YMCA" and a 21-gun salute before boarding a helicopter bound for the APEC gathering.

President Lee Jae Myung Lee will confer upon Trump South Korea’s highest order of merit and a replica of a golden crown from the ancient Silla era, his office said.

Just hours before Trump's arrival, North Korea announced it had test launched sea-to-surface cruise missiles off its western coast in a show of strength against Pyongyang's "enemies".

Trump has extended an invitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet while he is on the peninsula but on Air Force One Trump said his focus was on the Xi meeting.

"At some point, we'll be involved with North Korea. I think they'd like to, and I'd like to," Trump told reporters.

The US president will also hold a summit with Lee -- their second in-person talks just two months after a meeting in Washington.

In July, Trump said Washington had agreed to cut tariffs on South Korean imports to 15 percent in exchange for a $350 billion investment pledge by Seoul.

Steep auto tariffs remain in place, and the two governments are still divided over the structure of the investment pledge.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted Monday there was still "a lot of details to work out" in what he said was a "complicated" deal, while Trump has denied that there was a "snag" in the talks.

Activists plan to welcome the US leader, whose sweeping tariffs triggered the trade war, with anti-Trump demonstrations in Gyeongju condemning his "predatory investment demands".

- DMZ meeting? -

Trump and Kim last met in 2019 at the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the fraught Cold War frontier that has separated North and South Korea for decades.

Since 2019, Kim has been emboldened with crucial backing from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow's forces.

"North Korea has time on its side and isn't as isolated as before," said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

burs-stu/tc

O.Farraj--SF-PST