TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In an interview broadcast late on Thursday in the US, Donald Trump said he had a very "very good relationship" with China's President Xi Jinping.
"We have a very good relationship, a friendship really," Trump said in an interview conducted in China by Fox News host Sean Hannity.
"I think he’s a warm person, actually," Trump added. "But he’s all business. There’s no games. There's no talking about how the weather is."
China's role in smoothing Iran conflict still unclear
Earlier on Thursday, Trump said that Xi told him China wants to help negotiate an end to the war and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
However, there was no mention of whether China would continue to purchase Iranian oil.
China buys some 90% of Iran's oil exports, "providing tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue that supports Iran’s government budget and military activities," according to the US government's US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
In the Thursday evening Fox News interview, Trump also spoke of Iran, suggesting that hunting down Iran's enriched uranium was primarily for political optics.
"I just feel better if I got it, actually, but it's … I think, it's more for public relations than it is for anything else," Trump said.
He warned that he wouldn't be "much more patient" with Iran.
Trump defends Beijing's assessment of US as 'declining nation'
Meanwhile, after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, US President Donald Trump defended his Chinese counterpart's earlier assessment of the US as a "declining nation," saying it was an accurate description of the state of affairs under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
"Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi!" Trump wrote Thursday on his Truth Social Platform.
Trump then proceeded to list what he regards as the achievements of his nearly year-and-a-half in office, saying that Xi congratulated him on the policies he has implemented.
Xi hosted Trump to a warm greeting ceremony early on Thursday ahead of a private meeting to address the war in Iran as well as tensions over Taiwan.
Trump expressed hopes that the US "relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!"
Read: Xi Warns Trump Taiwan Mishandling Could Spark China-US Clash
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