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G20 Osaka Summit 2019

Updated: Jun 30, 2019


President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping shaking hands at the G20 Summit.

After meeting with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, at the G20 summit, President Trump told reporters: "We discussed a lot of things, and we’re right back on track." He also said that the United States would not impose any new tariffs on Chinese exports while the talks were underway, and that China agreed to resume purchases of American farm products and other goods.

President Trump has also backtracked on a ban on sales of American equipment to Huawei, the Chinese telecom Giant. He further explained that he wanted to help American companies that had complained about the ban, and in exchange, China agreed to buy a large sum of American food and agricultural products.


On Saturday June 29, President Trump said that he would visit the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea, on the following day, and publicly invited Kim Jong Un to meet him there. On June 30, 2019, Kim Jong Un and President Trump met at the heavily fortified DMZ and agreed to revive talks on the North Korean nuclear programme. After asking if Kim wanted him to cross the DMZ, Trump took ten steps into the North with Kim at his side, then escorted Kim back into the South for talks at Freedom House, where they agreed to negotiate. President Trump is the first sitting US President to ever set foot into North Korea. The moment was historic.

“I was proud to step over the line,” Trump told Kim as they met in on the South Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom. “It is a great day for the world.”


President Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the North Korean side of the border at the village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone on Sunday. (Susan Walsh | AP)

Trump has signalled that the US will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, while French President Emmanuel Macron threatened that he would not sign any joint statement unless it dealt with climate change, which he called a "red line."


According to the New York Times, the final statement that the leaders agreed to at the summit’s conclusion on Saturday reflected an agree-to-disagree approach. The statement said that those signatories that had confirmed their commitment to the pact at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires last year “reaffirm their commitment to its full implementation.” The statement also declared that the United States reiterated “its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement because it disadvantages American workers and taxpayers.”


While in Osaka, Japan, President Trump was also keeping tabs on his 2020 Democratic rivals. He commented about Kamala Harris saying "I thought that she was given too much credit. It wasn’t that outstanding." Trump also fired back at a former president, Jimmy Carter, who had questioned the legitimacy of President Trump’s 2016 victory by saying he had “no doubt” that Russia had meddled in the presidential election. “He’s a nice man. He was a terrible president,” Trump said in response to a question during a news conference. He further added: “I won not because of Russia, not because of anybody but myself.”

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