United States President, Donald Trump, hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping to a lavish state dinner at the White House on Thursday, praising the relationship between the two countries despite ongoing disagreements over trade, Taiwan, artificial intelligence and Iran.
The dinner followed a day of talks between Trump and Xi during the Chinese leader’s three-day visit to Washington, his first trip to the US capital in more than a decade.
It marked the second meeting between the leaders this year as Washington and Beijing seek to maintain dialogue between the world’s two largest economies.
During a toast at the dinner, Trump highlighted what he described as the strong relationship between the two leaders and their countries.
“President Xi and I both understand we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said during his toast on Thursday night, The Associated Press reported.
“Together, we can continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations,” Trump added.
Xi, in his own toast, referenced Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda and China’s goal of national rejuvenation, saying the two objectives could complement each other.
“President Trump has pledged to make America great again,” Xi said, adding that “China is committed to achieving great national rejuvenation”.
“These two goals are both ambitious and can surely be mutually reinforcing,” Xi said.
The dinner was attended by several prominent business and technology figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump had described his meeting with Xi as a “great meeting” and showed the Chinese leader around parts of the White House complex, including Marine One and a newly constructed helipad.
Trump had also personally welcomed Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, an unusual gesture as US presidents typically receive visiting leaders at the White House.
