Xi asks Trump if U.S. and China can avoid ‘Thucydides Trap’ at high-stakes summit

U.S. President Donald Trump met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday morning, kick-starting a high-stakes summit that is expected to cover trade, tariffs, Taiwan and Iran, and runs through Friday.

At a state banquet held in Trump’s honor, the leaders praised their “historic” visit and vowed to jointly deepen and promote the U.S. and China’s relationship.

Following an “in-depth exchange of views,” Xi said both leaders believed that Chinese-U.S. relations were “the most important bilateral ties in the world” and that the countries should be partners rather than rivals, in comments translated by Reuters. Xi added that “mutual respect” was key to stable ties.

In his speech, Trump described Xi as a “friend” and said the relationship was one of the most consequential in world history. Both countries, he added, had an opportunity to “create a future of greater prosperity, cooperation and happiness.”

He said the leaders had held “extremely positive and constructive discussions” earlier in the day and invited the Chinese president to visit the U.S. on Sept. 24.

‘Thucydides Trap’

Earlier Thursday, Trump told Xi that the relationship between the two countries was going to be “better than ever before,” according to official broadcast footage. Trump, who also visited China in 2017 in his first term, said the two leaders have known each other personally for longer than any other U.S. or Chinese president.

Speaking just ahead of Trump, Xi noted the global attention on the meeting, and said a major question for the two countries was whether they could avoid the “Thucydides Trap,” according to an official English translation of his remarks broadcast by CCTV.

The Thucydides Trap refers to how tensions historically between a rising and ruling power have often resulted in a war. Graham Allison, the Harvard professor who popularized the concept, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” that he expects the trade truce Trump and Xi reached at their meeting in South Korea last fall will become a formal agreement.