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The two leaders reached an agreement on fentanyl, some tariffs and rare earths, at least for a year. But even as the global trade picture cleared a little, Mr. Trump spurred new worries about nuclear proliferation.
By Katie Rogers and Erica L. Green
Katie Rogers and Erica Green are White House correspondents following the president’s travels in Asia.
Oct. 30, 2025, 6:54 a.m. ET
Ahead of the high-stakes meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, world leaders were hoping for news of an economic truce that could help stabilize the global economy. They got it.
They got something extra, as well: intensified concerns about whether the world is entering a new era of nuclear weapons proliferation among global powers.
After a 90-minute face to face meeting in South Korea, Mr. Trump announced that the two leaders had sharply de-escalated their trade standoff, agreeing, in essence, on a yearlong cease-fire that would roll back tit-for-tat measures including steep tariffs and shutting off access to rare earth metals.
The meeting was the most anticipated and consequential event of Mr. Trump’s nearly weeklong tour through Asia, where he engaged in a series of trade and security agreements with other countries in the region, many of them geared toward containing Beijing.
“I guess on the scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Mr. Trump said aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington.
The agreement was a win for the world economy, but was brokered under the shadow of a new and sudden amplification of nuclear threats between global powers.
