USA,CHINA Agree To Military, Security Cooperation

Despite their different approach to the increasingly dangerous situation in North Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping now intend to move forward with military and security cooperation between the two countries, Newsweek reported.

Last week, Trump criticized the Chinese leader for not helping to crack down on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, the report said.

Both Xi and Trump had “very substantive discussions” about how to deal with North Korea, Mnuchin added.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua said Xi will order China’s navy to join U.S.-led military exercises in the Pacific Rim in 2018, the report said.

Last week’s Trump-Xi 90-minute meeting took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, the report said, and followed a tweet by Trump just days before the summit in which he admonished Xi for not doing more to curb North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

Pyongyang claimed the July 4 test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could reach Alaska, Newsweek reported.

“So much for China working with us,” Trump tweeted the following day, adding, “trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40 percent in the first quarter” of 2017.

In April, during Trump’s meeting with Xi at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the president received assurances China would do more to contain the North Korean threat, the report said.

However, Trump changed his China stance while at the table with Xi during the summit.

“Let me just say that it’s an honor to have gotten to know you. We are developing and have developed a wonderful relationship,” Trump said to Xi Saturday. “I appreciate the things that you have done in regard to the very substantial problem that we all face in North Korea.”

Following the latest missile test, tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have ratcheted up, with the U.S. threatening military action. In Poland on Thursday, Trump warned: “I have some pretty severe things that we are thinking about” in response to the missile test. “That doesn't mean we are going to do it. I don't draw red lines,” the president said.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday the U.S. is considering military action to stop Pyongyang’s missile tests, Newsweek reported.

China has been frustrated by the increasingly combative rhetoric of the U.S., the report said. Xi stressed the importance of talks with North Korea in his meeting with Trump, according to Xinhua news agency.

Xi, quoted by Xinhua, said “China has many times talked about its principled position, namely that at the same time as the international community [is] making necessary responses to North Korean acts that go against U.N. Security Council resolutions, 

They must step up efforts to promote talks and manage and control the situation.”

FROM WN.com,