By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would visit China for a state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14 and 15, rescheduling a closely watched trip that was delayed due to the ongoing Iran war.
Trump added that he would host Xi for a reciprocal visit in Washington later this year.
“Our Representatives are finalizing preparations for these Historic Visits,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “I look very much forward to spending time with President Xi in what will be, I am sure, a Monumental Event.”
The trip had originally been slated for next week, March 31 to April 2. Talks were set to be wide-ranging, with an effort to lower tensions between the world’s biggest economies on tariffs as well as Taiwan, computer chips, illegal drugs, rare earths and agriculture.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that Xi understood the need to reschedule the trip.
Trump’s last trip to China, in 2017, was the most recent by a U.S. president. Trump’s visit will be the leaders’ first in-person talks since an October meeting in South Korea, where they agreed on a trade truce.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Gram Slattery, Trevor Hunnicutt and Michael Martina; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
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