U.S. President Donald Trump will visit China in April next year. President Trump also invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to the U.S. for a state visit sometime next year.

President Trump announced this in a post on his social media (SNS) platform, Truth Social, stating that he had a "very good phone call" with President Xi on the 24th (local time).

President Trump said, "President Xi invited me to Beijing in April (next year), and I accepted," adding, "He will be my guest for a state visit to the United States sometime next year (after the April visit to China)."

This heralds "big events" next year with the leaders of the U.S. and China visiting each other's countries. However, China has not yet announced whether President Xi has accepted President Trump's invitation to visit the U.S.

This would be the first visit to China by a sitting U.S. president in over eight years, since November 2017 during President Trump's first term. Prior to this, President Xi visited the U.S. in April 2017 and met President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

However, President Xi's visit at that time was not a state visit. If President Xi accepts President Trump's invitation, it will mark a rare occasion where the leaders of the two countries visit each other in the same year.

The phone call today was to follow up on the agreements reached at the meeting between the two leaders in Busan, South Korea, on November 30th, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in South Korea.

President Trump said, "This call is a follow-up to our very successful meeting three weeks ago in South Korea," adding, "Since then, both sides (U.S. and China) have made significant progress in keeping our agreements up-to-date and accurate. We are now able to focus on the big picture."

President Trump stated, "Our relationship with China is extremely strong. We agreed that it is important to communicate frequently, and I look forward to doing so."

President Xi also said, "Last month, we held a successful meeting in Busan, South Korea, achieving many important agreements, and by coordinating and injecting momentum to ensure the steady progress of this large ship of China-U.S. relations, we sent a positive signal to the world," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. He added, "Since the Busan meeting, China-U.S. relations have generally stabilized and improved, and have been welcomed by both countries and the international community."

President Xi emphasized, "It is common sense repeatedly proven through practice that cooperation between China and the United States benefits all (合則兩利) and conflict harms all (鬪則俱傷). The mutual achievement and common prosperity of China and the United States are visible and tangible realities. Both countries should maintain this trend and adhere to the correct direction to increase the list of cooperation and reduce the list of problems."

However, subtle differences in the core agenda of this phone call and the positions on it conveyed by the two leaders are also discernible.

President Trump said that in his call with President Xi, they "discussed many topics, including Ukraine/Russia, fentanyl, soybeans, and other agricultural products," adding, "We have reached good and very important agreements for our great farmers, and it will get even better."

This reiterates the agreement reached at the Busan summit, where China agreed to cooperate in blocking the inflow of fentanyl precursors into the U.S. in exchange for a 10 percentage point reduction in the U.S. tariff on Chinese goods, and China agreed to purchase large quantities of agricultural products such as U.S. soybeans.

Xinhua News Agency reported that President Trump told President Xi, "Both countries are fully implementing the important agreements from the Busan meeting," and that "China played an important role in the victory of World War II, and the United States understands the importance of the Taiwan issue to China."

The fact that Chinese state media reported President Trump's remarks about "understanding the importance of the Taiwan issue" is likely related to China's strong reaction to recent remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takahashi about intervening in the event of a Taiwan contingency.

In contrast, President Trump did not mention the Taiwan issue or recent China-Japan tensions in his SNS post detailing his conversation with President Xi.

Regarding the Ukraine-Russia issue, President Xi stated, "China supports all efforts aimed at peace," and "We hope that all parties can continuously reduce differences and reach a fair, lasting, and binding peace agreement at an early date to fundamentally resolve this crisis," according to reports.

Given that the U.S. and Ukraine announced on the previous day in Geneva, Switzerland, that they had prepared a "peace framework" to end the war in Ukraine, it is likely that President Trump explained this to President Xi.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt told reporters at the White House today that the call "lasted about an hour."

Levitt explained that while the Russia-Ukraine issue was discussed in the call, the main focus "was on the trade negotiations that have been discussed with China and how the U.S.-China relationship is moving in a positive direction."

Levitt also added, "President Trump talked about American farmers. And we are satisfied with what China has shown, and they are in the same position. President Trump and President Xi also discussed maintaining communication after their very productive meeting in South Korea."

U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands and whispering. Yonhap News

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