US President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping agree Strait of Hormuz 'should remain open': White House

United States President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart XI Jinping on Thursday greed that the Strait of Hormuz must open for the free flow of energy, a White House readout of the summit mentioned in a statement.

Further, two two leaders discussed building on progress in ending the flow ‌of ‌fentanyl precursor chemicals into ‌the ‌US, as well as increasing Chinese purchases of US ⁠agricultural ⁠products, the statement said.

Trump described his meeting with Xi as the “biggest summit ever”, in which the two discussed a wide range of issues, including the war in Iran and bilateral trade frictions.

"There are those who say this is maybe the biggest summit ever," Trump said in his opening remarks while having talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Trump, who is on a three-day visit to the Asian country, said that the two nations had worked out the differences, adding that they would have a "fantastic future" together.

Trump repeatedly called Xi a great leader in the first round of meeting that lasted for two hours.

Trump has been accompanied by some of US' top business leaders such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, and Larry Fink of BlackRock.

"It's an honour to be your friend and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before," he said.

Meanwhile, XI said that this would be a "historic and a landmark" year, that opens up a new chapter in China-US relations.

China and the US have more common interests than differences, the Chinese president said in his opening remarks.

Noting that China and the US should be partners instead of rivals, Xi said the two countries should help each other succeed and prosper together, and find the right way for major countries to get along well with each other.

Apart from the West Asia crisis, the leaders of the two largest economies were also expected to talk on trade and tariffs, Artificial Intelligence and technology, Taiwan and US' arms sales to Taipei, and rare earths supply chains, among other things.