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The Trump Xi Meeting: Seoul Balances Superpowers as Trade and Sanctions Collide

  • Oct 24, 2025
  • 3 min read
Trump Xi meeting
The world holds its breath.

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The White House has confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a bilateral meeting in South Korea on October 30, setting the stage for a high-stakes diplomatic encounter that has global markets on edge. The confirmation, which came ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, provided a degree of certainty to anxious investors, though prospects for any significant breakthrough remain unclear.


The meeting lands amid deeply escalated trade tensions. The U.S. leader, who has already imposed a 30 percent tariff on Chinese imports and threatened higher levies, stated he hopes the two can “work out a lot of our doubts and questions.” This "super week" of diplomacy, which also includes the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, is being watched as a critical test of the relationship between the world's two largest economies.


But this confrontation involves more than just tariffs. In a significant escalation, the White House signaled that President Trump will use the meeting to pressure President Xi to stop Chinese companies from purchasing Russian oil. This demand directly follows new U.S. sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil firms, Rosneft and Lukoil, effectively linking the U.S.-China trade war to the conflict in Ukraine and broadening the geopolitical stakes considerably.


Trump Xi meeting
Trump Xi meeting

For the host nation, the summit is a perilous balancing act. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is scheduled to hold separate summits with both Trump and Xi. His administration is eager to cast South Korea as a "platform" for regional peace and stability, with security adviser Wi Sung-lac noting the goal is to "build consensus for peace, prosperity, and stability in the region."


However, South Korea is not a neutral observer; it is navigating its own sharp dispute with Washington. Seoul and its key ally remain "sharply" at odds over the cash investment levels required in a $350 billion package pledged by South Korea. That deal was intended to lower U.S. tariffs on South Korean exports, but an agreement on its implementation looks distant.


President Lee’s agenda with Xi will focus on their deepening bilateral partnership and the persistent issue of North Korea. Before the APEC events in Gyeongju, Trump will also travel to Tokyo to meet with Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, stitching together a series of critical alliances and confrontations across Asia.


While the APEC forum is the official occasion, the private bilateral talks will define the week. The outcomes of the Trump Xi meeting in particular could set the course for global trade, test the effectiveness of Russian sanctions, and force a strategic realignment for key U.S. allies caught in the middle.


CRUX

The upcoming Trump Xi meeting in South Korea is a critical stress test for the global order. It’s a convergence of crises: an escalating US-China trade war, new US sanctions on Russian oil, and simmering tariff disputes between Washington and its host, Seoul. While South Korea aims to be a platform for peace, it finds itself caught in the geopolitical crossfire. With prospects for a major breakthrough unclear, global markets are braced for volatility as the world's two superpowers confront their "doubts and questions" face-to-face.


Diplomacy is set, but the outcomes are anything but certain.



 
 
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