Trump says he and China’s Xi will meet in South Korea in October

US President Donald Trump said he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit to take place at the end of October in South Korea and will visit China in the “early part of next year”, following a phone call the leaders shared on Friday.

In a Truth Social post, Mr Trump also said the Chinese leader would come to the United States “at an appropriate time,” noting the leaders also made progress on “the approval of the TikTok Deal”.

“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” Mr Trump wrote, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation, a grouping of 21 economies on the Pacific Rim.

Neither Mr Trump nor a readout of the call from Chinese state media gave any details on what was discussed about TikTok.

TikTok did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’s request for more details on the call or the framework deal.

China’s official news agency Xinhua said Mr Xi, in the call, stressed the importance of the bilateral ties and urged the US side to avoid any unilateral trade restrictions.

It was the second call with Mr Xi since Mr Trump returned to the White House and launched sky-high tariffs on China, triggering back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the two largest economies.

But Mr Trump has expressed willingness to negotiate trade deals with Beijing, notably for TikTok, which faces a US ban unless its Chinese parent company sells its controlling stake.

The two men also spoke in June to defuse tensions over China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

Mr Trump has said his relationship with China is “very good” but noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could end if European countries put higher tariffs on China.

Mr Trump did not say if he planned to raise tariffs on Beijing over its purchase of Moscow’s oil, as he has done with India.

Following a US-China trade meeting earlier this week in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sides reached a framework deal on TikTok’s ownership but Mr Trump and Mr Xi likely would finalize it Friday.

Mr Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, has several times extended a deadline for the app to be spun off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. It is a requirement to allow TikTok to keep operating in the US under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns.

Mr Trump said TikTok “has tremendous value” and the US “has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it”.

US officials have been concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok.