Xi stresses on cooperation in meeting with Trump

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) – U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping Saturday agreed to revive bilateral dialogue on trade.

Meeting on the sidelines of G20 summit in Osaka, a western city in Japan, Xi told Trump that "cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation”, Chinese state-run Xinhua reported.

It added that U.S. side told the meeting that Washington will not add new tariffs on Chinese exports.

“The two countries' economic and trade negotiating teams will discuss specific issues,” the report said.

Speaking at the meeting, Trump said that the two sides were close to a deal “but then something happened”. He was referring to a renegotiated trade deal between Washington and Beijing which did not materialize.

As a result, the two countries raised tariff on each other's products.

At the beginning of their meeting, Xi said that, despite the great changes that have taken place in the international situation and China-U.S. relations during the past 40 years, "One basic fact remains unchanged: China and the United States both benefit from cooperation and lose in confrontation."

Trump said, "We want to do something that will even it up with respect to trade."

"It would be historic if we could do a fair-trade deal," Japanese Kyodo news agency quoted Trump as having said.