Trump’s Asia swing seeks a truce — and perhaps a headline-grabbing handshake
In a carefully choreographed arrival that mixed pomp with negotiating urgency, US President Donald Trump landed in Tokyo on the latest leg of a five-day tour of Asia that officials hope will yield a pause, if not a full settlement, in the bruising trade fight with China.
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Wearing a gold tie and blue suit, Trump offered the kind of broad-shouldered pageantry that has marked his foreign trips — fist pumps on the tarmac, a helicopter lift for a night-time tour of the city and a motorcade into the Imperial Palace grounds to meet Emperor Naruhito. The optics were designed to signal friendliness to a key ally even as the White House pursues hard-edged economic leverage across the region.
Deals and details on arrival
The president’s five-day swing already produced a flurry of bilateral agreements and headline-grabbing commitments. In Malaysia, the first stop, Washington co-signed pacts with regional partners and announced trade and minerals deals. In Tokyo, the White House said Japan had offered a roughly $550 billion investment pledge in exchange for a reprieve from some American tariffs — a signal that Washington’s tariff threats are being deployed as a bargaining chip to extract investment and market access.
Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has emphasized bolstering the US–Japan alliance. Officials said Tokyo plans to announce purchases of US pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and a shipbuilding agreement — items that dovetail with Trump’s domestic talking points about winning manufacturing and agricultural wins for American workers. “Strengthening the Japan–US alliance is our top priority,” Takaichi told reporters, according to officials familiar with the meeting.
On the table with Beijing: tariffs, rare earths and a pause
But the biggest prize remains Beijing. Negotiators from the world’s two largest economies have been racing to reach a framework that would halt levies that have roiled global supply chains and spooked markets. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng wrapped up two days of intensive talks that US officials described as producing a framework to pause steeper American tariffs and China’s restrictions on rare-earth exports.
Rare earths — a handful of elements central to electric vehicles, wind turbines, consumer electronics and advanced weapons systems — have assumed outsized strategic importance. Beijing’s recent curbs on those exports jolted markets and underscored how trade disputes can rapidly become national security flashpoints. A preliminary consensus reported by China’s vice commerce minister, Li Chenggang, and a public comment from Bessent that the additional 100% tariffs slated for 1 November were being averted sent Asian stocks sharply higher.
“It’s going to be great for China, great for us,” Trump told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, summing up the optimistic tone Washington wants to project. Global investors, who dislike policy uncertainty, rewarded the prospect of a deal with a quick lift in equities across the region.
Why a pause matters
A temporary truce would give companies breathing room to rework supply chains without the sudden shock of punitive levies. It would also reflect a broader trend: trade conflicts that began as tariff spats are increasingly tied to industrial policy, technology competition and geopolitical positioning. If Washington and Beijing can agree to manage rather than resolve those tensions, it could push firms to delay drastic reshoring efforts and instead double down on diversification of suppliers.
ASEAN, allies and the optics of influence
Trump’s tour has also been an exercise in redistributing attention and influence across Asia. In Kuala Lumpur, his arrival was escorted by Malaysian F-18 jets and followed by a red-carpet welcome that included the president’s familiar arm-waving. He signed agreements that rewarded neighbours such as Cambodia and Thailand with trade commitments and sought to mend relations elsewhere — including a conciliatory moment with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the summit.
The US is using a blend of commercial incentives and security reassurances to shore up partnerships at a time when many Asian capitals are balancing economic ties with China against security ties with Washington. Tokyo’s investment pledge and promises of American agricultural and industrial purchases underscore a transactional diplomacy meant to translate tariffs into tangible benefits for allied governments.
Busan, Xi and the lingering wildcard of the Korean Peninsula
The itinerary now shifts to South Korea, where Trump will attend the APEC summit in Busan and is expected to meet China’s President Xi Jinping — their first face-to-face since Trump returned to office. Markets and diplomats alike will be watching for whether the two leaders can convert negotiators’ framework into concrete steps that dampen the trade war’s escalation risk.
At the same time, Trump has not ruled out extending his trip to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The prospect of a meeting — last staged at the DMZ in 2019 — remains an unpredictable element. South Korea’s reunification minister even suggested a “considerable” chance of talks. North Korea has signalled willingness to engage if certain US demands are softened, introducing diplomatic complexity to an already packed agenda.
Questions for the weeks ahead
- Will the negotiators’ framework hold through implementation, or will tensions flare again once domestic political pressures rise in Washington and Beijing?
- Can economic concessions from allies and partners be sustained over time, or are they tactical moves meant to buy short-term calm?
- How will the strategic competition over critical resources like rare earths reshape supply chains and alliances in the long run?
Trump’s Asia trip is as much about headlines as it is about handshakes. If he leaves the region with a publicized pause in tariff escalation and the promise of a Xi meeting, he will claim a diplomatic win. If the underlying frictions — industrial policy, technology rivalry and geopolitical distrust — remain unaddressed, the pause may prove only that: temporary.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
