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Trump Says He’ll Meet With Xi, Putin at G-20 in June

The announcement of the meetings comes as the U.S. and China ratchet up a trade war that’s weighing on global financial markets.

Trump Says He’ll Meet With Xi, Putin at G-20 in June
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Xi Jinping, China’s president, shake hands during a news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. (Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he’ll meet with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Japan in June.

“It makes sense to get along with Russia,” Trump told reporters Monday during a meeting with Hungary’s Viktor Orban.

Trump’s relationship with Putin continues to draw scrutiny in the U.S. as Democratic lawmakers try to move forward with their own probes related to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Late last year, Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with Putin that had been planned on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Argentina, after Russia refused to release Ukrainian ships and sailors it had seized in the Kerch Strait.

The announcement of the meetings comes as the U.S. and China ratchet up a trade war that’s weighing on global financial markets. China on Monday announced plans to raise duties on some American imports starting June 1, defying Trump’s warning to resist further escalation. The move sent stocks tumbling.

“There can be some retaliation but it can’t be very substantial,” Trump said Monday.

China’s move to hike tariffs came in response to the U.S.’s decision last week to increase levies on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25% from 10%. Trump on Monday accused China of backing out of a tentative deal, saying Beijing reneged on an agreement to enshrine a wide range of reforms in Chinese law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.