The tale of two super power presidents amidst global war on trade, tariffs

Trump conquers Middle- East, Xi Jinping expands influence in Latin America

- BY NITYA CHAKRABORTY

Soon after organizing a 90 day truce last week end at Geneva through three day intensive talks between top officials of the United States and China, President Donald Trump is on a three nation tour covering Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE to pursue his deal making focusing on both trade and security. Simultaneously, the Chinese President Xi Jinping is wooing the Latin American countries to support him in his bid to restore the rule based international order on trade and tariffs.

President Xi addressed the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC) in Beijing on May 13 expressing his readiness to work with the CELAC to build a shared development programme including trade for the economic growth of the Region. CELAC has more than thirty members including economically powerful countries like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

The same day on May 13, President Trump was in Saudi Arabia, the first country in his three nation tour from May 13 to May 16. Trump met Syrian President Ahmed Al Shara on May 14 morning which was a major diplomatic break-through since the former al Qaida commander took over as the interim president after the fall of the Russian ally Bashar al Assad. The meeting proved that for the US President, the past antecedents do not matter when it is linked with business and security interests. This interim President was in the U.S. jail for five years as he was charged as a terrorist.