Trump says he will visit China in April and host Xi Jinping next year

President Donald Trump said Monday that he will travel to Beijing in April and host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit later in the year.

Trump announced the plans after a phone call with Xi on Monday, which came weeks after his meeting in South Korea at the end of October.

“Our relationship with China is very strong!” Trump wrote On social truth. “Now we can focus our sights on the big picture. To that end, President Xi invited me to visit Beijing in April, which I accepted, and I reciprocated as he will be my guest on a state visit to the United States later in the year.”

The travel plans come after the Trump administration detailed the framework of a trade agreement with China that renewed soybean purchases from China and eased Chinese export restrictions on rare earth metals, two commitments that await full compliance from China.

Trump said the call focused on the war between Russia and Ukraine, fentanyl, and agricultural products such as soybeans, a major US export.

Trump spoke with Xi for about an hour on Monday, according to White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt, who said it was “a very positive call” that focused largely on a trade deal the United States is working on with China “and those relationships and how they are moving in a positive direction.”

Chinese state media said the call focused on Taiwan, which Trump said was not discussed last month in their last in-person meeting. Chinese state media quoted Xi as telling Trump in a phone call on Monday that “Taiwan’s return to China is an integral part of the post-war international order.”

While in South Korea to visit Xi Jinping in October, Trump said he would go to China in April, and that Xi would make a trip “sometime after that,” either to Florida or Washington, D.C.