Good to have ties with China, Russia, Japan, India: Donald Trump

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday said it’s good to have a relationship with countries like Russia, China, Japan and India as he expressed hope to reach a trade deal with Beijing.

Trump, addressing reporters at the White House before leaving for Louisiana for a farmers event, said the US is doing very well with China, which is having a hard time with its economy because of the tariffs he has imposed on the import of their items.

“I have a great relationship with President Xi Jinping because it’s good to have relationships with Russia, China, Japan and India and I have relationships with almost everybody. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump said.

“I think that we are going to be able to do a deal with China. We are, I can tell you, we are getting things that, before I became president, you would’ve had no chance at getting. They would have laughed at your president’s face,” he said.

The US and China have been locked in an escalating trade spat since early 2018, raising import tariffs on more than USD 300 billion of each other’s goods US officials were in Beijing last week for talks to resolve the trade dispute. Trump and Chinese leader Xi agreed on December 1 to a three-month truce in the escalating spat.

The next round of negotiations would be held in Washington between January 30 and 31. Both sides have set March 1 as the deadline to defuse trade tensions.

“We’re doing very well with our economy. We are at records. Our unemployment numbers just hit a record, another record. We’re doing extremely well as a country. We’re doing better than any country right now anywhere in the world. China wants to negotiate,” Trump said.