SEOUL — President Trump arrived in Japan on Thursday for a high-stakes G-20 summit featuring a showdown with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the two countries’ trade war and meetings with the world’s top leaders.
Mr. Trump touched down in Osaka just before 7 p.m. local time and held a bilateral dinner with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The president defended his “America First” agenda on trade, even with allies such as Australia.
“I’ve inherited massive trade deficits with our allies,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “We’ve been very good to our allies. And we even help our allies militarily. We do look at ourselves … I think more positively than ever before, but we also look at our allies.”
Mr. Morrison said the actions of China and the U.S. will set the tone for the meetings.
“It’s going to be an important few days,” the Australian leader said. “It’s not the G-2, it’s the G-20 and for those two nations to create a context for a broader global prosperity of which they will be key beneficiaries [is important]. They will benefit more than anyone, anyone by the global economy getting stronger.”
The president is scheduled to meet one-on-one with nine world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, including Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Germany’s Angela Merkel.
He’ll kick off Friday by sitting down with his Japanese host, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and have a closely watched meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin later in the day. He will also travel to South Korea later to jumpstart talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.
The headliner is Saturday, when Mr. Trump will meet with Mr. Xi to try and find a route out of their trade dispute. Both sides have slapped retaliatory tariffs on more and more imports, rattling global markets.
The confrontation between the U.S. and Iran will also be at the forefront of discussions.
Mr. Trump spent part of the long flight to Japan watching the first Democratic presidential debate, with the first set of 10 candidates vying to replace him next year. As Air Force One flew from a refueling stop in Alaska to Japan, Mr. Trump tweeted his review: “BORING!”
He also criticized NBC for an audio malfunction that briefly interrupted the proceedings.
• Dave Boyer reported from Washington, D.C.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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