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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will hold a decisive working meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit this week, as well as a diplomatic minefield with the Russian president after the unrest in Ukraine, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Trump is due to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a working dinner at the top of the Group of 20 that will take place on Friday and Saturday.
At a press conference at the White House, Larry Kudlow, economic advisor, said: "The president said that it was quite possible that we could reach an agreement and that it was open to that."
But Kudlow warned that if China resisted US demands, Washington could escalate the trade war.
"If need be, if things do not work at this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another billion dollars worth of duties in the amount of 267 US dollars."
This is the biggest threat to Trump's visit to Argentina, as the two giants of the economy are stuck in punitive tariffs and Washington threatens to target all remaining Chinese imports, including Apple products. made in China.
Despite Kudlow's repeated insistence on Trump's optimism, he also highlighted the difficult conditions the government wants to impose on Beijing.
"China should change its practices and be part of the community of responsible trading nations," said Kudlow, noting that he believed the US economy was far better than China's to cope to a prolonged trade war.
"We are able to take care of it and manage it very well," he said.
China will have to give way over "fairness and reciprocity," he said, warning that US concerns about China's IP theft and technology transfers are "in dire straits." to be solved ".
Trump is also scheduled to meet separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders from Argentina, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, White House officials said.
His talks with Putin are a particularly delicate task – and could be canceled at the last minute following the seizure of Ukrainian ships by Russia in the last episode of a long-standing military clash.
US-Russian relations are being severely tested, while Trump is under investigation at his home for alleged collusion with Moscow during his victory in the 2016 presidential election.
To complicate the already complex diplomatic landscape, Russia fired on Ukrainian ships and captured three ships on Sunday, prompting the Ukrainian government to accuse Moscow of preparing for a "large-scale war."
Trump told the Washington Post Tuesday that "maybe I will not have the meeting." He said that he would wait for the results of a report from his national security team before making a decision.
Trump's latest summit with Putin, held in Helsinki in July 2018, sparked a wave of criticism that the US president had not held his Russian counterpart aware of what US intelligence had concluded was deliberate interference. of the Kremlin in the 2016 elections.
The White House said there was no plan for Trump to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Gulf Kingdom.
The CIA reportedly told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties with the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump dismissed it, causing an outcry from its opponents and even some congressional allies.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said an informal meeting could still take place.
"I would not say that we have ruled out any interaction," she said, although she stressed that "the president's agenda is rather loaded."
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