The meeting took place on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of 21 countries in Gyeongju, including the leaders of Japan, Australia and Canada.
It is the final stop on an Asia tour that saw Trump, 79, showered with praise and gifts, including a replica of an ancient Korean golden crown.
In Japan, new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and gave him a putter and a gold-plated golf ball.
However, Trump’s hopes of a re-run of his 2019 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone frontier appear to have dashed.
Trump said, though, that they would meet in the “not too distant future” and that he would like to “straighten out” tensions between North and South Korea.
On Thursday, he hailed the military alliance with South Korea as “stronger than ever” and said he had given the green light for Seoul to build a nuclear-powered submarine.
One surprise in the talks could have been if Xi had brought up Taiwan, with speculation that Beijing might press Trump to water down US backing for the self-ruled island.
Since 1979, Washington has recognised Beijing over Taipei as the sole legitimate Chinese power, even though the United States remains Taiwan’s most powerful ally and its main arms supplier.
But Trump said that Taiwan “never came up. That was not discussed, actually.”
The US president added, though, that he and Xi agreed to “work together” on the issue of Ukraine.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/trump-xi-meeting-lower-tariffs-rare-earths-5434601
