On the sidelines of this year's annual G20 summit to be held in the Japanese city of Osaka by the end of this month, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet again. This encounter between the leaders of the world's two biggest economies has been shortly arranged, after Mr. Xi went to Russia to talk with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and before his first visit to North Korea, also the first visit of a Chinese president to this neighboring country since 2005.
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2017. (Nicolas Asfouri / AFP/Getty Images)
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US and Chinese negotiators have gathered again to continue their bilateral trade talks in preparation for Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi's gathering in Osaka. That these two powerful men agreed to sit down together in Osaka is very welcoming news for not only both the US and China but also for the world. Only such direct talks could pave the way for these two countries to get rid of the present crisis, to de-escalate the conflict and to put forwards guidelines and orientations for the relationship between the US and China in the future.
After a not short standstill, the bargaining between the US and China will start again. Osaka may be a suitable site for a gathering of Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi but surely not a proper place for any big or great deals to be made between the US and China. Therefore, no breakthrough, for example agreements, could be expected as possible results of the talks between the two leaders in Osaka. Most probably, it would be something like the agreement they reached last year in Argentina, also on the sidelines of the then G20 summit. Some concrete contents of such an agreement sound like continuing bilateral trade talks, setting a time framework for the talks, committing not to impose new protectionist trade tariffs until concluding the talks and keeping in touch to oversee the whole process of negotiations so that it is always advancing on the right track.
In other words, they are bargaining again until they cannot bargain any more.
