WASHINGTON — A much-anticipated summit between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping may be postponed due to logistical snarls stemming from the ongoing war in Iran, according to White House officials.
The current plan calls for Trump to travel to the Far East March 31-April 2 to discuss a range of issues with Xi. It will mark the first trip by a sitting president to China since Trump himself made the same journey in November 2017.
“It is a leader-to-leader conversation at this point,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday morning. “The president looks forward to visiting China. The dates may be moved.
“As commander in chief, it’s his number one priority right now to ensure the continued success of this operation, Epic Fury. So we will keep you updated on the dates soon.”
Since the war began Feb. 28, Iran has been working to inflict economic pain on the US and alienate its allies by blocking shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil flows annually.
Attacks by Iran on tankers and other vessels have sent oil prices spiking as high as $106 per barrel earlier Monday.
To counter that, the Trump administration has announced plans to release some 172 million barrels of oil from US strategic reserves, part of a broader effort by 32 countries to release 400 million barrels of oil.
Trump has also pushed other countries to provide naval escorts for vessels attempting to travel through the channel.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times over the weekend, referring to China, which gets much of its oil from Iran via the Strait of Hormuz.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”
“There’s a false narrative that if the meetings are delayed — it wouldn’t be delayed because the president has demanded that China police the Strait of Hormuz,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Monday morning.
“If the meeting for some reason is rescheduled, it would be because the president wants to remain in DC to coordinate the war effort.”
Bessent has been in Paris for trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, which are intended to lay the groundwork for the larger summit between Trump and Xi.
