Trump-Xi Meeting: Can the US and China Form a 'G2'?

The Trump-Xi Summit: A New Era for US-China Relations?

US President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a two-day summit with China’s President Xi Jinping, marking the two leaders’ first face-to-face talks six months after reaching a trade war truce.

The Event Details: Trade, Security, and Global Governance

The summit, which was delayed from March because of the US-Israeli war on Iran, comes as Trump needs a foreign policy win amid dissatisfaction at home over the latest Middle East quagmire.

The Data Analysis: Economic Impact of the Trade War

US-China ties have also been strained by the war, which has damaged Beijing’s economy. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Washington’s competing blockade of Iranian ports have left Chinese ships stranded and severely affected China’s crude oil imports, half of which are shipped from the Middle East.

The Impact Analysis: Global Implications of a G2

As Trump threatens to quit NATO over the alliance’s refusal to back the US-Israeli war on Iran, further distancing the US from its traditional allies, the Trump-Xi summit has revitalised the idea of a Group of Two (G2) – an informal grouping in which the world’s two largest superpowers could steer the world’s collective future.

The Prediction: Future Outlook for US-China Relations

Jing Gu, director of the Centre for Rising Powers and Global Development at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK, said the meeting should not be seen as the beginning of a G2, but instead as “strategic reconnaissance”. “Both sides are trying to read the other’s latest bottom line, clarify red lines and test how far pressure can go before stable tension turns into rupture,” Gu told Al Jazeera.