00:00U.S. President Trump has thrown China's leader Xi Jinping a state dinner featuring a tech-heavy guest list,
00:06as well as a number of billionaires, Washington power brokers and business leaders.
00:11The dinner on Thursday night wrapped up a day of talks between the two leaders
00:15that did not erase differences over issues like Iran, Taiwan, AI and trade.
00:21The meeting was closely watched in Europe,
00:24as every meaningful agreement between Washington and Beijing has also an impact on the EU.
00:30As EU Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné told Euronews.
00:34We need a constructive dialogue between China and the United States.
00:40And we saw last year that the escalating trade tensions between Washington and Beijing over these issues could lead to
00:46a trade war.
00:47This could also affect the European economy.
00:49So yes, I hope this dialogue will be constructive and we can reach an agreement and that we can stabilize
00:56the situation.
01:04To make sense of what happened between Trump and Xi Jinping, let's bring in Ian Lesser now,
01:09distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
01:13Good morning, Ian. Good to see you.
01:15Stéphane, very good to be with you. Thank you.
01:17So, Trump hosting Xi at the White House, was this primarily a summit about managing rivalry or the beginning of
01:26a new friendship?
01:28Oh, I would say managing rivalry.
01:31And I think both leaders bring to the table, you know, their own agenda of that kind, even though, you
01:37know, we don't know all the details of what came out.
01:39Apparently, there were no blow ups, if you could say.
01:42There was nothing deeply negative.
01:43On the other hand, there wasn't a lot of progress on a lot of the substantive issues on trade and
01:47tech and other things people were looking for.
01:50But really, it was all about the symbolism.
01:52And the symbolism really, in a sense, is the substance to manage rivalry.
01:58China, you know, can come away from this perceiving that it was treated as an equal.
02:04And President Trump can also come away with what he could describe as a success.
02:09But also, you know, looking over his shoulder at the American political scene where, you know, tougher attitudes on China
02:15are there on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans.
02:18So, you know, there were certain risks in coming off as too much of a success for President Trump as
02:24well.
02:25I think it's some, you know, the result comes out somewhere in the middle.
02:28So both sides were talking about strategic stability.
02:32But underneath the diplomatic language, there was enormous mistrust.
02:36So how far could Trump and Xi actually reduce tensions?
02:41I think this does, in some sense, go a long way.
02:44This kind of very high level, very personalized diplomacy.
02:49Both leaders apparently value this.
02:51Both systems, in a sense, value this.
02:53You know, it does make a difference.
02:55The optics matter.
02:57But as you say, there are a lot of unresolved issues.
03:00Some of them are a very technical kind and not things without a lot of preparation beforehand and agreement beforehand,
03:07not things that were likely to be settled at a summit like this.
03:10And so the fact on trade, for example, that the sort of trade war truce, if you like, has been
03:15extended for another few months is something of a success.
03:18But it also leaves a lot of work to be done.
03:21I got to ask you this, Ian.
03:23Yesterday, Trump caused consternation among European leaders by inviting Vladimir Putin to the upcoming G20 summit in Miami.
03:32Your reaction to that?
03:34Well, this is going to be viewed very negatively in a lot of places, not least in Europe, where there's,
03:40you know, no desire to give what might be seen as a diplomatic gift to President Putin as the war
03:50in Ukraine drags on.
03:52And the sanctions are getting tougher.
03:54Sure. And there is a certain irony in this, in that the United States itself just enacted tougher sanctions on
03:59Russia.
04:00Whether he actually comes to Florida for the G20 meeting is unclear.
04:04But even the invitation is going to upset a lot of people, for sure.
04:08But to go back to our earlier conversation, it's another piece of evidence just in terms of the style of
04:13the administration, President Trump's engagement with the world.
04:16He sees it very much through individual leaderships.
04:20And so in that sense, the invitation wasn't surprising.
