US President Donald Trump and Chinese premier Xi Jinping spoke over telephone on Thursday, amid stalled tariff negotiations that followed a trade war which shook markets across the world, as per a report from Beijing's state-run news agency Xinhua.
The agency notification added that the talks took place at Trump's request, declining to provide further information. This request comes just a day after he made certain comments on the Chinese premier, in a Truth Social post.
Trump later spoke about the trade-focused call, which lasted almost two hours. "Nothing was discussed concerning Russia/Ukraine, or Iran," he had said.
Vaguely hinting at a possible resolution for the rare earth mineral export issue, he added that he would be meeting Xi at a later date to discuss trade further and mentioned offers of reciprocal visits.
The two nations are currently embroiled in a number of disputes that seek to threaten the fragile truce established after a trade war ensued that struck markets worldwide.
While the US sounded an alarm over China's restriction on exports of rare Earth minerals earlier this week, China sharply criticised Trump's "groundless" accusations about violations of the trade truce at Geneva talks, "discriminatory" American restrictions on importing chips, and the recent revocation of Chinese student visas.
The Geneva talks on May 12—which managed to bring about a fragile, temporary accord between Washington and Beijing—saw Trump lowering his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days to allow for future negotiations, and also saw China reduce its taxes on US goods from 125% to 10%.