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China’s President Xi Jinping warned US President Donald Trump Thursday that mishandling the countries’ disagreements over Taiwan could push China-US relations to a “dangerous place,” as the two leaders met for a closely watched summit.Xi’s remarks on Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by Beijing, came in a closed-door meeting of the leaders of the world’s two largest economies that ran more than two hours, China’s foreign ministry said.They represented a stark – if not unprecedented – warning during a pomp-filled occasion that was otherwise friendly and relaxed, although the US summary of the talks made no mention of Taiwan.According to Chinese state media Xinhua, Xi, referring to Taiwan, told Trump: “If handled poorly, the two countries could collide or even enter into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into an extremely dangerous place.”Taiwan has long been a flashpoint in the US-China relationship, with Beijing refusing to rule out the use of military force to gain control of the island and the United States bound by law to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is with Trump in China, confirmed to NBC News that the issue of Taiwan was discussed, saying the Chinese “always raise it on their side, we always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics.”The US summary of the talks focused on the leaders’ shared desire to reopen the key waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed due to the Iran war, and Xi’s apparent interest in buying American oil to reduce China’s dependence on Middle East supplies. With Trump’s approval ratings dented by a war with Iran that shows no signs of abating, the first visit by a US president to China in nearly a decade has taken on added significance as he searches for economic wins.”There are those who say this may be the biggest summit ever,” Trump told Xi in brief opening remarks, after a ceremony that featured an honour guard and throngs of children waving flowers and flags at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.Xi told Trump that preparatory negotiations between US and Chinese economic and trade teams in South Korea on Wednesday had reached “balanced and positive outcomes”, China’s foreign ministry said in a summary. The talks aimed to maintain a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October, where Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led Wednesday’s talks, said he expected progress on establishing mechanisms to support future bilateral trade and investment, and an announcement about large Chinese orders for Boeing aircraft.Trump expected Xi to raise the thorny issue of US arms sales to Taiwan, he said earlier this week. With the status of a $14bn package awaiting Trump’s approval still unclear, China has reiterated its strong opposition to the sales.”US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today,” Rubio told NBC. Trump did not respond to a reporter’s shouted question whether the leaders had discussed Taiwan as he posed with Xi later for photos at the Temple of Heaven, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where emperors once prayed for good harvests. Taipei said there was nothing surprising from the summit and that China’s military pressure is the real threat to peace.Underscoring its outsized importance to the US economy, Taiwan, an island of 23mn people, is the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner, behind China, which has about 1.4bn people.At a lavish state banquet attended by senior officials and business executives, Xi told the audience that the China-US relationship was the most important in the world.”We must make it work and never mess it up,” Xi said, before guests tucked into a 10-course dinner that included lobster soup, Beijing roast duck and tiramisu.The leaders will take tea and lunch together today before Trump departs. Joining Trump on his visit are a group of CEOs looking to resolve issues with China, from Elon Musk, viewed in China as a visionary and occasional villain, to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a late addition to the delegation. The United States has cleared around 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s powerful H200 AI chip, but not a single delivery has been made so far, Reuters exclusively reported.Trump entered the talks with a weakened hand. US. courts have hemmed in his ability to levy tariffs at will on exports from China and other countries, while the Iran war has boosted inflation at home and elevated the risk that Trump’s Republican Party will lose control of one or both legislative branches in November’s midterm elections.Though the Chinese economy has faltered, Xi does not face comparable economic or political pressure.As well as Boeing jets, Washington is looking to sell farm goods and energy to China to cut a trade deficit that has long irked Trump. Beijing, for its part, wants U.S curbs eased on exports of chip-making equipment and advanced semiconductors, officials involved in the planning said.Trump is expected to encourage China to convince Iran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict, as a fifth of global supplies of oil and natural gas travel through the Strait of Hormuz in normal times. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the United States.Rubio told Fox News that it was in China’s interest to help resolve the crisis as many of its ships are stuck in the Gulf and a slowdown in the global economy would hurt its exporters. Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Thursday that an agreement had been reached to let some Chinese ships pass.Trump Thursday invited Xi for a reciprocal trip to the White House on September 24, in what would be his first visit to Washington since 2015 and his first to the United States in the US president’s second term Related Story Source link
At least 89 people were killed and other injured after powerful thunderstorm in Uttar Pradesh state in India.The rainy storm uprooted trees, damaged houses and triggered wall collapses, which resulted in at least 89 deaths and multiple injuries, according to Indian media.Storms are common in Uttar Pradesh during the hot season, which runs from March to June, ahead of the monsoon rains. Source link
US President Donald Trump has said he does not expect to need China’s help to end the war in Iran and ease Tehran’s firm grip over the Strait of Hormuz, in remarks made before he arrived in Beijing yesterday for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The war is expected to feature in talks between Trump and Xi over the next two days, but Trump downplayed Beijing’s potential role in ending the conflict, which has choked off traffic through a key waterway that typically carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. “I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise,” he told reporters in Washington before departing for China. Iran has appeared to firm up its control over the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, cutting deals with Iraq and Pakistan to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the region, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Iranian officials have signalled they see that control as a long-term strategic goal. An army spokesperson said supervision of the waterway could generate revenue amounting to twice Iran’s oil income, while strengthening its foreign policy leverage. “After this war ends, there will be no place for retreat,” the spokesperson said, according to comments carried by ISNA news agency. More than one month after a tenuous ceasefire took effect, US and Iranian demands to end the war remain far apart. Washington has called for Tehran to scrap its nuclear programme and lift its hold on the strait, while Iran has demanded compensation for war damage, an end to the US blockade and a halt to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is battling Iran-backed Hezbollah. Trump has dismissed those positions as “garbage.” The Trump administration said on Tuesday that senior US and Chinese officials had agreed last month that no country should be able to charge tolls on traffic through the region, in an effort to project consensus on the issue ahead of the summit. China, a major buyer of Iranian oil that maintains close ties with Tehran, did not dispute that account. On Wednesday, a Chinese supertanker carrying 2 mn barrels of Iraqi crude sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, ship-tracking data showed, marking the third known passage by a Chinese oil tanker through the channel since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Other countries are exploring shipping arrangements similar to Tehran’s deals with Iraq and Pakistan, sources said, potentially entrenching Tehran’s control of the waterway through which fertilisers, petrochemicals and other bulk commodities vital to global supply chains normally flow. As the costs of the conflict mount, Trump said Americans’ financial struggles were not a factor in his decision-making on the war. Data released on Tuesday showed that US consumer inflation accelerated in April, with the annual rate posting its largest gain in three years as food, rent and airfares rose. Asked to what extent the economic strain on Americans was motivating him to strike a deal, Trump replied: “Not even a little bit.”“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation…,” Trump said before leaving for China. “I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”The remarks are likely to draw scrutiny as cost-of-living concerns remain a top issue for voters ahead of November’s midterm elections. The conflict is weighing heavily on global energy markets. Global oil supply will fall by around 3.9 mn barrels per day across 2026 and undershoot demand due to disruptions caused by the Iran war, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, with more than 1 bn barrels of Middle East supply already lost. Brent crude futureswere steady at around $108 per barrel, after a three-day rally driven by the Hormuz deadlock. Surveys show the war is unpopular with US voters less than six months before nationwide elections. Two out of three Americans, including one in three Republicans and almost all Democrats, think Trump has not clearly explained why the country has gone to war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Source link
US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a “good” meeting on Thursday in which they agreed that the Strait of Hormuz “must remain open”, the White House said.Iran has largely blocked shipping through the vital waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas normally passes, since the outbreak of war with the United States and Israel on February 28. “The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy,” the White House said.China is directly affected by the lack of petroleum crossing the Strait of Hormuz. More than half of the crude imported by sea to China comes from the Middle East and mainly transits through the strait, according to maritime analytics firm Kpler.According to the White House, Xi expressed an interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the strait in the future. Beijing’s own readout of the meeting did not mention any such interest. For its part, the White House statement did not mention any discussions between the two leaders on Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing and a sensitive subject in US-China diplomacy.Xi earlier warned that “conflict” between China and the United States could break out, should the issue be mishandled, Chinese state media had reported. Related Story Source link
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation between their two countries during their meeting Thursday in Beijing.”China and the United States both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. We should be partners, not rivals,” Xi said.US President said “the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before,” stressing that the two countries will have “a fantastic future together.”The Chinese President welcomed his US counterpart at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where the two sides held a summit to discuss several contentious issues and their global implications.Trump arrived in China on Wednesday evening for a two-day visit, accompanied by a number of prominent businessmen, including CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk. This indicates that the visit is focused on trade and investment matters. Source link
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung discussed today ways to enhance economic cooperation and joint coordination with US Treasury Secretary Scott Besseent.The President stressed the importance of enhancing economic cooperation between South Korea and the United States to maintain economic stability in both countries.The South Korean president also called for expanding bilateral cooperation in the economic and technological sectors, particularly in vital minerals, supply chains, and foreign exchange markets.For his part, the US Treasury Secretary praised President Lee’s leadership and South Korea’s economic growth and strong stock market performance despite global challenges, including the war in the Middle East. Related Story Source link
India and Russia are in advanced talks to sign a preliminary agreement on critical minerals covering exploration, processing and technological collaboration, two sources familiar with the matter said. The deal is expected to focus on lithium and rare earths, with the two governments also set to facilitate corporate investments, the sources said, declining to be identified as the deliberations were not public.The agreement could be signed within two months, they added. “We have shared a draft of the proposed agreement with our Russian counterparts,” one of the sources said. The Ministry of Mines, which is leading discussions with Russia, did not respond to a Reuters e-mail seeking comment. Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and the office of First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov also did not respond to requests for comment. India is keen to cut its dependence on China, which dominates global supplies of several key minerals and has advanced mining and processing technology, and secure new overseas supplies to support its energy transition and infrastructure development. New Delhi has signed critical minerals agreements with Argentina, Australia and Japan, and is in talks with Peru and Chile on broader bilateral agreements that also include critical minerals. However, India has had limited success in securing overseas critical minerals assets and has so far signed only a single lithium exploration and mining project agreement, covering five blocks in Argentina in 2024. India could also revisit Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom’s lithium exploration project in Mali if the political situation in the West African nation stabilised, one of the sources said. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that India withdrew from the Mali lithium project because of security concerns. Related Story Source link
Police officers detain members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a student union, during a protest against the cancellation of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test…
US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at easing deep tensions between the rival superpowers, AFP reporters saw.Air Force One touched down at Beijing Capital International Airport after the long flight from Washington, beginning the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade Source link
The Pentagon said yesterday the cost of the war with Iran had climbed to nearly $29bn, as President Donald Trump faced mounting scrutiny over the conflict and its impact on military readiness.The new figure, revealed by the Defence Department during a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, is about $4bn higher than the estimate offered by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth two weeks ago. Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were testifying on a $1.5tn budget request for 2027 alongside Pentagon finance chief Jules Hurst III when they were asked for an update on the war’s price tag. “At the time of testimony… it was $25bn,” Hurst told lawmakers, referring to Hegseth’s April 29 estimate.“But the joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to 29,” he said — citing updated “repair and replacement of equipment costs” and broader operational expenses. Pressed on when Congress would receive a fuller accounting of the war’s costs, Hegseth said the administration would request “whatever we think we need” separately from the main Pentagon budget, but did not say when that supplemental request would arrive. The testimony came as a fragile US-Iran ceasefire appeared increasingly shaky, with Trump warning Monday that the truce was on “life support” after rejecting Tehran’s latest peace proposal. Democrats used the hearing to hammer the administration over both the ballooning cost of the war and what they described as a lack of transparency about US objectives.“The question must be answered at the end: what have we accomplished and at what cost?” asked Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. Fellow Democrat Betty McCollum accused the Pentagon of a “consistent lack of transparency” and demanded more clarity about the administration’s long-term strategy before Congress approves additional funding.The war has intensified concerns over rapidly depleting US weapons stockpiles after months of heavy missile and air-defense operations in the Middle East. Hegseth dismissed warnings that the conflict had dangerously drained American munitions reserves. “The munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” he said. “We know exactly what we have. We have plenty of what we need.” Democratic Senator Mark Kelly warned over the weekend that inventories of Tomahawk missiles, Patriot interceptors and other advanced systems had been severely drawn down and could take years to replenish, potentially weakening US readiness in any future confrontation with China. The hearings marked Hegseth’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since the White House formally notified Congress that hostilities launched by the US and Israel against Iran on February 28 had “terminated.” Democrats have repeatedly been blocked by the Republicans as they have introduced measures to rein in Trump’s Iran war powers, accusing the president of waging war without proper congressional authorization.Hegseth and Caine faced a second round of questioning before a Senate panel after their House appearance, and there were protesters at both hearings. In the Senate, an Iranian-American activist interrupted Hegseth’s opening statement to call out: “If you approve this budget, you will complicit in the war crimes of this administration.”Senators raised questions about the Trump administration’s plan to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, which has faced bipartisan pushback. Hegseth did not comment directly on Washington’s relations with Berlin, but said: “It’s not the troops. It’s the capitals of those militaries that limit what they’re able to do, where they’re able to go, who they’re able to fight, that create limits on our own.” Source link