The threat
posed by North Korea was a key topic in phone calls between U.S. President
Donald Trump and the leaders of China and Japan, along with trade issues,
the
White House said on Sunday.
Trump spoke
with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead
of expected meetings with the leaders of Asia's two biggest economies at a
Group of 20 nations summit in Germany later this week.
"Both
leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,"
the White House said of Trump's call with Xi from his resort property in
Bridgewater, New Jersey, where he is spending a long weekend.
"President
Trump reiterated his determination to seek more balanced trade relations with
America’s trading partners," it added.
Trump has
become increasingly frustrated with China's inability to rein in North Korea,
and the reference to trade was an indication the one-time New York businessman
may be ready to return to his tougher-talking ways on business with Beijing
after holding back in hopes it would put more pressure on Pyongyang.
Trump and Xi
discussed the "peace and stability of the Korean peninsula", China's
Foreign Ministry said, without elaborating.
Ministry
spokesman Geng Shuang later told a daily briefing that the United States was
"very clear" about China's position on North Korea. Geng did not
elaborate on what Xi told Trump about North Korea.
"Negative
factors" have affected Sino-U.S. relations, and China has already
expressed its position to the United States, Xi told Trump, according to a
read-out of a telephone call between the leaders carried by the ministry.
ONE CHINA
POLICY
The ministry
said Trump told Xi the U.S. government would continue to follow a "one
China" policy, under which Washington acknowledges the Chinese position
that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it, and that this position
had not changed.
China pays
great attention to that reiteration and hopes the United States can
"appropriately handle" the Taiwan issue, Xi told Trump, according to
the ministry.
On Thursday,
the United States targeted a Chinese bank and sanctioned Chinese individuals
and a firm for dealing with North Korea and approved a $1.42 billion arms deal
with Taiwan - decisions that angered Beijing.
And on
Sunday a U.S. warship sailed near a disputed island in the South China Sea
claimed by China, drawing a rebuke from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
Trump’s
separate conversations with the two Asian leaders followed White House talks
with South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, last week in which the U.S.
leader called on Asian powers to implement sanctions and demand North Korea
"choose a better path and do it quickly."
TRILATERAL
SUMMIT
Trump and
Abe, in their call, reiterated their commitment to increase pressure on North
Korea.
"They
reaffirmed that the United States-Japan Alliance stands ready to defend and
respond to any threat or action taken by North Korea," the White House
said in a statement.
Japan's
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference the two countries
and South Korea will have a trilateral summit at the G20 meeting, but he didn’t
want to speculate on what might be said there.
“It’s
important for these three nations to show their strong unity and cooperation
both within and without," Suga said. "Things such as strengthening
pressure on North Korea or urging China to fulfill even more of a role. Things
like this have been agreed on before as well.”
Trump, who
held talks with Abe earlier this year at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in
Florida, has forged a united front with the Japanese leader on the need to
exert pressure on North Korea to curb its nuclear and missile development.
During and
after a Florida summit with Xi in April at Mar-a-Lago, Trump praised his
Chinese counterpart for agreeing to work on the North Korea issue and has held
back on attacking Chinese trade practices he railed against during the
presidential campaign.
But Trump
has recently suggested he was running out of patience with China's modest steps
to pressure North Korea, which is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile
capable of hitting the United States, and has been considering moving ahead on
trade actions.
Trump has
been weighing new quotas or tariffs on steel imports for national security
reasons and plans to discuss his concerns at the G20. Washington sees excess
global production capacity, particularly in China, administration officials
say.
Reuters*
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