Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: The Trumps welcome Chinese Prez and wife in US, airport moment goes viral

New Delhi has historically been comfortable with managed competition between the US and China. The Joe Biden administration’s description of China as the "pacing challenge" for US foreign policy raised India’s importance to Washington. In his second term, Trump has kept up some competition with China, particularly on the economic and technological front.

His administration has also largely dropped the framing of China as America’s prime geopolitical threat, including in its 2025 National Security Strategy, and has sought stable ties with Beijing. Trump has publicly warned Taiwan against independence and was lukewarm in backing Japan during a recent confrontation with China over the island.

A more accommodating policy towards China may leave Washington with less need for countries such as India to balance power in Asia, with some observers asking whether New Delhi’s importance to the US has somewhat declined under this administration.

India and others are also wary of Trump’s periodic support for a G2. The idea, much maligned in Washington these days, is that the US and China, as the only two superpowers, get to settle the world’s most pressing problems between them. It could mean America subordinating the concerns of countries such as India, which has a territorial dispute with China, to its need for stable relations with Beijing. Nonetheless, that remains a remote prospect, given the depth of strategic competition and distrust between the two.

“At the central core of China’s perspective of the United States is the deepest possible distrust and the belief in the ultimate malevolence of the United States as a global actor that is the animating feature of your central interlocutors in Beijing more generally and that comes through in some of these discussions,” said Kurt Campbell, former US deputy secretary of state and now chairman of The Asia Group.

India and other Asian nations will watch the summit and its aftermath closely for signs of whether the truce holds, whether the two superpowers achieve substantial breakthroughs that bring more stability and predictability to their ties, or whether the summit falls short of expectations and a more hostile relationship resumes.

“Asian colleagues and senior strategists like their US-China relationship the way they like their morning porridge – not too hot, not too cold. They do not like it when the United States and China veered toward confrontation and public threats. But on the other hand, they probably become equally, but in a different way, unnerved by signs of condominium. That somehow the United States and China will make common cause – in a way, making decisions over the heads of other countries in the Indo-Pacific,” Campbell added.

When Xi Jinping and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan disembarked from their plane in Washington DC, US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania waited at the foot of the ladder.

Chinese President Xi Jinping rolled through Washington DC in a huge motorcade on Wednesday local time. According to reports, US President Donald Trump went back toward Marine One, while Xi went by car.

Two leaders have prompted two security bubbles, and the US capital is locked down so neither column has to share a road.

As the US and China race to develop more capable AI, discussion of the technology is set to be on the menu on Thursday.

Some of the most notable names in tech, including Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Jensen Huang of Nvidia, are expected to be dining with President Trump and Xi Jinping.

Also set to attend are Jeff Bezos, chairman of Amazon, Elon Musk, boss of Tesla and SpaceX, Sundar Pichai, boss of Google, Michael Dell, of Dell computers, and Jane Fraser, boss of Citi bank, representatives of the White House said.

China's yuan dipped against the dollar on Thursday, as rising near-term Federal Reserve rate hike expectations drove the greenback higher, while cautious investors awaited the outcome of the Trump-Xi summit in Washington. The US dollar rallied to its highest level in nearly two months overnight as investors' expectations of a near-term rate hike grew, pushing benchmark ​10-year Treasury yields to their highest since 2007.

On being asked what he will talk about with Chinese President Xi on Iran, US President Donald Trump says, "We'll see. I'll be talking about that and many other subjects, but it's also coming along well, including that."

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: Xi will receive a ceremonial welcome at the White House on Thursday before meeting Trump and attending a black-tie state dinner. On Friday, Xi and Peng are scheduled to have private tea with the Trumps and visit the National Archives.

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: Trump and Xi are expected to discuss tariffs, technology, artificial intelligence, military ties and US arms sales to Taiwan. The Russia-Ukraine war, conflicts in the Middle East and the space arms race are also expected to figure in their talks.

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: Xi and Peng walked down a 100-foot red carpet as a 21-member honour cordon stood at attention. The US Air Force Band played the US and Chinese national anthems, while ceremonial cannon fire and a flypast by two B-1 bombers marked the arrival.

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcomed Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at Joint Base Andrews. It was the first time since 1962 that a US president had welcomed a foreign leader at an airport, when John F Kennedy received British PM Harold Macmillan.

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday for a three-day US visit. It is his second summit with President Donald Trump in less than six months, with trade, technology, AI, Taiwan and global conflicts expected to dominate talks.

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: US President Donald Trump said the welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping was well received, calling Xi and his delegation “tremendous people” after greeting them at a state ceremony in Washington.

Trump-Xi Jinping meeting LIVE: Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that China and the US should be “partners, not rivals” as he arrived in Washington for a three-day state visit, expressing confidence that the two countries can find the right way to coexist in a new era.

“China and the US are both great countries, and the two peoples are both great peoples,” Xi said in a written speech, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.