Washington, Apr 17 (EFE).- United States President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “very happy” about Iran’s opening of the Strait of Hormuz and predicted that their next meeting in Beijing will be “historic.”
Trump said that “President Xi is very happy that the Strait of Hormuz is open or opening very fast,” in a post on his official Truth Social account.
He also said his upcoming meeting with Xi in Beijing will be “special and possibly historic,” and added that he expects to secure significant progress in bilateral relations.
The Strait of Hormuz is critical for China, as nearly half of its oil imports transit the route. About 80% of the crude that passes through the strait is bound for Asia, according to the International Energy Agency.
The Republican president is scheduled to visit the Chinese capital from May 14 to May 15 for a bilateral meeting that was initially planned for April but postponed because of the war in Iran.
Trump will be the eighth U.S. president to visit China, following Richard Nixon in 1972 and later visits by Gerald Ford (1975), Ronald Reagan (1984), George H. W. Bush (1989), Bill Clinton (1998), George W. Bush (2001) and Barack Obama (2016).
Earlier Friday, Trump said Tehran was removing mines from the Strait of Hormuz and that he hoped a new round of negotiations would soon take place to reach an agreement ending the war, which has lasted seven weeks since the launch of Operation Epic Fury against the capital of the Islamic republic.
EFE dte/lds
