President Donald Trump has wrapped up a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and returned to the US, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

No concrete agreements were announced, whether on trade or reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The external flash and friendly atmosphere masked significant differences in what each side wanted to achieve from the meeting and how they generally view their relations.

The second day of the summit was a test of whether the talks could lead to a concrete deal. But that had not materialized when Trump left Beijing.

Last October, Trump and Xi struck a trade truce after a series of clashes that included tariffs of more than 100 percent on imports, restrictions on US chip exports to China, and a cut in—a de facto ban of—China’s supply of rare earth metals to the US..

At that time, the leaders of the two countries agreed to postpone radical measures for a year and try to reach a comprehensive trade agreement during that time. However, the results of the talks in Beijing showed no signs of this.

Trump invited Xi to visit Washington on September 24. According to analysts, in practice, the prospect of such a visit would enable Beijing to obtain a postponement of some important decisions from the US, primarily on arms supplies to Taiwan.

The carefully worded statements of the two parties show how Xi intends to behave until the end of Trump's term, the WSJ noted, to force him to publicly commit to showing restraint: no unexpected tariffs, no sudden sanctions, no actions that Beijing could perceive as a provocation against its so-called "red lines."

The results of the first day of the summit were presented in the White House report as a resumption of trade relations that are profitable for business. Meanwhile, Beijing has described them as the first step in creating a multi-year “strategic stability” system, reflecting Xi’s desire to ensure more predictable behavior from Trump as president.

Trump said during a press briefing with Xi on Friday that the US and China share common goals in ending a war with Iran, while Beijing has been more reserved, calling for continued diplomatic efforts, Bloomberg reports. According to Trump, the two leaders agreed that Iran should not have nuclear weapons and that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened to shipping. Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry said that the issue of Iran’s nuclear program should be resolved through dialogue.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that Xi told him that China does not intend to supply weapons to Iran. He claimed that Xi would like to see a deal with Iran go through and has offered his help. But in practice, China has shown no signs that it can stop the buying of Iranian oil, which helps keep an economy afloat that Washington is trying to strangle with sanctions, the WSJ noted.

Analysts noted that Beijing is trying to clearly link the Taiwan issue to bilateral relations. Xi raised it one of the first, if not the first, after the start of his meeting with Trump. If the issue of the island's ownership is resolved "properly," China and the US will continue cooperation, the Chinese leader said during a closed meeting, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

"If things are handled incorrectly, there may be clashes or even conflict between the two countries, which in general will put Sino-US relations in a very dangerous situation," the Chinese president said.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1035641