U.S. President Donald Trump. Washington AFP=Yonhap News. 

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on the 22nd (local time) that a "considerably long meeting is scheduled" with Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Gyeongju, South Korea, later this month.

This differs from the statement made by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant in an interview with Fox Business News on the same day, who said the two leaders would have a 'pull-aside' meeting in South Korea.

Speaking at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House on the same day, President Trump said, "We can solve many of our problems, questions, and tremendous assets together. So we look forward to it. We expect something to be resolved. We have a very good relationship (with President Xi), but the meeting will be very important."

He predicted that the meeting with President Xi would lead to agreements not only on China's strengthened control over rare earth exports but also on U.S. soybean exports and, further, on nuclear disarmament.

"Tariffs are much more powerful than rare earths," he emphasized. "Rare earths are a disruptive factor, but there are many rare earths around."

President Trump recently agreed to strengthen cooperation on rare earths and critical minerals in a summit with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

"I think we will probably reach an agreement on the nuclear issue as well," he said. "(In the world) we have the most nuclear weapons, Russia is second, and China is a distant third, and it will become too many within 4 to 5 years."

When asked if he would demand China stop importing Russian oil to end the war in Ukraine, he replied, "I will talk to him (President Xi) about that issue as well. India's (import of Russian oil) will almost disappear by the end of this year."

President Trump added that President Xi has significant influence over Russian President Vladimir Putin and said, "I am confident that we will talk about Russia and Ukraine."

However, he announced that the meeting with President Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine had been canceled.

"We canceled the meeting with President Putin. It didn't feel appropriate," President Trump said.

"We felt we wouldn't reach the point we needed to get to. So we canceled the meeting, but we will meet in the future," he added.

Regarding the background of the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Russia, President Trump stated, "I felt it was time to impose sanctions. We have waited a long time."

Ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on reciprocal tariffs, President Trump said, "It will be the most important decision in the history of the Supreme Court. I think I may have to go (to court)."

He further assessed that tariffs played a significant leverage role in his claimed achievement of "ending eight wars," stating, "As you know, we have fair agreements with Japan, the European Union (EU), and South Korea."

While the U.S. has trade agreements with Japan and the EU, it is in the final negotiation stage for an agreement with South Korea.

"These countries took a lot of money from us," President Trump emphasized. "Now, we are bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars, or even trillions of dollars (thanks to tariffs)."

This remark is interpreted as referring to the fact that Japan, South Korea, and others have promised astronomical investments in the U.S. in exchange for lower tariffs on American goods.

Hankook Ilbo, Yonhap News