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Asia
China
Oct 30, 2025 Trump and Xi spoke today morning in Busan. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Rubio, Trade Representative Greer, Treasury Secretary Bessent, Commerce Secretary Lutnick, Chief of Staff Wiles, and U.S. Ambassador to China Perdue. Chief of Staff Cai, Foreign Minister Wang, Vice Foreign Minister Ma, Vice Premier He, Commerce Minister Wang, and Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Zheng accompanied Xi. The deal formalizes a framework agreement between American and Chinese negotiators reached earlier this week. Xi also announced that the U.S. and China reached a consensus, according to Chinese state media. The deal scraps Trump’s threat of a 100% tariff increase, immediately reduces the total tariff rate on Chinese goods, and resolves, at least for now, several of the more contentious trade issues between the U.S. and China. China accounts for around 70% of the world’s supply of critical minerals, which are crucial to the U.S.’s military, semiconductor and auto sectors. China will suspend its rare earths licensing measures for at least a year. China will also resume its purchases of American soybeans, Trump said. Trump also said the Chinese feel very strongly about increasing investments in the U.S. China may also be allowed to buy advanced computer chips from the U.S. Trump said Beijing will speak with Nvidia’s CEO Huang with the U.S. acting as a sort of arbitrator or the referee but that discussions would not involve the most advanced Blackwell chip. The U.S. agreed to suspend Trump’s 24% reciprocal tariff on China for another year, China’s Commerce Ministry said in its statement about the framework agreement. Greer told reporters on Air Force One that the U.S. will also postpone its Section 301 probe into Chinese shipbuilding which would have involved higher port fees on Chinese ships and prompted retaliatory port fees from China on American ships. China will also suspend its countermeasures for one year. Trump said the U.S.’s 20% fentanyl-linked tariff on Chinese goods would be halved, effective immediately and Xi agreed China would take “very strong measures” to reduce the flow into the U.S. of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl. Trump said Xi also agreed to work together with the U.S. to end the war in Ukraine. “We’re both going to work together,” Trump said. 'We agree that the sides are locked in fighting and sometimes you have to let them fight I guess. Crazy. But he’s going to help us and we’re going to work together on Ukraine.” He said talks with Xi did not center on Russian oil, but focused on cooperation to end the war. The security of Taiwan was not discussed, Trump said. U.S. leaders did not say whether a deal for the purchase of TikTok’s U.S. operations, which was part of the framework agreement, was part of the deal reached today. “Both sides should consider the bigger picture and focus on the long-term benefits of cooperation, rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation,” China’s foreign ministry said in a readout after the meeting. (Source: Time - U.S.)
October 30, 2025 The leaders met in a small gray building with a blue roof on a military base adjacent to Busan’s international airport. Busan is a port city in South Korea, about 76 kilometers south from Gyeongju, the main venue for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. When the two were seated at the start of the meeting, Xi read prepared remarks that stressed a willingness to work together despite differences. "Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other,” he said through a translator. “It is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.” After a 100-minute meeting with Xi in South Korea, President Trump described his face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi today as a ’roaring success”, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans. The U.S. would lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%. The president said they also discussed the export of more advanced computer chips to China, saying that Nvidia would be in talks with Chinese officials. Trump said that he would go to China in April and Xi would come to the U.S. “some time after that.” It continues to be the potential for major tensions between the world’s two largest economies - both nations are seeking dominant places in manufacturing, developing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and shaping world affairs like Russia’s war in Ukraine. The U.S. and China have each shown they believe they have levers to pressure the other. The past year has demonstrated that tentative steps forward can be short-lived. For Trump, that pressure comes from tariffs. China is the top producer and processor of the rare earth minerals. There is a mutual recognition that neither side wants to risk blowing up the world economy in ways that could jeopardize their own country’s fortunes. The U.S. stock market has climbed on the hopes of a trade framework coming out of the meeting. After their talks, Trump plans to return to Washington. Xi plans to stay on in South Korea to meet with regional leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which officially begins tomorrow and sees an opportunity to position China as a reliable partner. (Source: The Asahí Shímbun - Japan / The Associated Press - U.S.)
29 October 2025 China’s $143 billion push to dominate the global electric-vehicle industry. After years of investing in Europe, Chinese EV and battery firms are turning to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the second quarter of this year, 75% of Chinese investment in raw materials went to Africa for the first time, diversifying beyond Asia and Latin America. China is methodically rewiring the global EV supply chain around its industrial and geopolitical interests. Companies like BYD and CATL have expanded operations across the globe for operational and geopolitical reasons. Chinese players are investing in Morocco and Nigeria for critical minerals, expanding their Southeast Asia battery push, and setting up regional production hubs in Mexico and Brazil. Lower costs may be an added benefit. Indonesia and Hungary have been the biggest recipients of Chinese EV funding between 2014 and 2025. Indonesia pulled in $22 billion, Hungary attracted $18 billion, Rhodium data shows. Indonesia started attracting Chinese investment after banning the export of unprocessed ores in 2014. The country is now the world’s largest supplier of nickel, a crucial battery mineral, providing more than two-thirds of the global supply in 2024. Chinese companies control roughly three-quarters of domestic refining capacity in Indonesia. Indonesia is also a massive auto market going green. The government has set ambitious targets to deploy 2 million electric cars and 12 million electric two-wheelers by 2030. Chinese players are not just bringing products but also helping build the domestic supply chain. Because Japan is lagging in EVs, there is an opportunity for the Chinese. Earlier this year, CATL and its partners set up a $6 billion battery plant in Indonesia to create a full supply chain, from nickel mining to battery manufacturing and recycling. In West Java, Indonesia, BYD is building a $1 billion factory expected to be operational in January 2026. Hungary has been strengthening ties with China throughout Viktor Orbán’s 15 years as prime minister, offering tax breaks and infrastructural support. Four of the 10 biggest Chinese investments in Europe last year went to Hungary, and the landlocked nation is on track to become the second-largest battery producer outside of China. Unlike the EU and the U.S., Hungary has no plans to decouple from China. Since 2019, CATL has built plants in Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, and Spain. By next year, the company aims to start mass production at its 100-GWh battery plant in Hungary, announced in mid-2022. BYD’s passenger vehicle factory in Hungary is currently under construction - the first of its kind by a Chinese automaker in Europe. (Source: Rest of World - U.S.)
October 29, 2025 U.S. and Chinese economic officials met over the weekend in Malaysia to build the framework of a trade deal. President Trump today predicted striking a deal with China's leader in a bilateral meeting. "That's better than fighting and going through all sorts of problems," he added ahead of the tomorrow meeting with President Xi. "No reason for it." Trump said that he could reduce tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for a commitment from Beijing to curb exports of chemicals used to make fentanyl. The U.S. currently imposes a 20% tariff on Chinese imports, in addition to other tariffs. In response, Beijing imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans. The deal would also include China delaying the imposition of export restrictions on rare earths, while the U.S. would hold off on raising tariffs by 100%. The U.S. has raised tariffs so high that it's brought globalization to the verge of breakdown, says Zhu, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University in China. He notes that besides tariffs, the U.S. has raised port fees this month on Chinese-owned or operated ships docking at U.S. ports. And it has proposed barring Chinese air carriers headed to and from the U.S. from flying through Russian airspace. China's airlines have a cost advantage, because Russia allows Chinese carriers to transit their airspace, but not U.S. ones. China's retaliation is to show China and the world that the U.S. can't just keep us cornered, Zhu adds. Trump has also mentioned that he wants to discuss nuclear arms control with Xi, and possibly include China in U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control negotiations. (Source: NPR - U.S.)
(Tuesday), October 28, 2025 U.S. President Trump is scheduled to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, for dialogue. The summit-Trump's first with Xi since beginning his second term in January - is set to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Three high-stakes issues: Trade; Tik-Tok; Taiwan. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)
Malaysia
Sunday 26 October 2025 US president Trump has hailed a “historic' ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand after both nations today signed an expansion of the peace deal to end their border conflict. Mr Trump, who is in Malaysia, had used the threat of higher tariffs against both countries to force them to agree to end the fighting that resulted in dozens of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. The US president announced that the peace deal will save millions of lives. A truce, brokered by Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, was reached on 28 July after Mr Trump said he had spoken to the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia. Both Southeast Asian neighbours in July fought their worst border clashes in a decade that killed nearly 40 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. The clashes saw both sides trade artillery fire and airstrikes along contested stretches of their 817km border. The two countries have competing territorial claims. Earlier this month, Cambodia accused Thailand of broadcasting high-pitched 'ghost sounds' along the disputed border, the country’s human rights commission what it described as psychological warfare. The deal was signed shortly after Mr Trump landed in Malaysia – his first stop on his whirlwind five-day Asia tour. He watched as Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet and Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the expanded ceasefire at the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which both nations are members. Meanwhile, Mr Trump also signed separate economic deals with Cambodia and Thailand today. A White House official said Mr Trump would also sign a critical minerals agreement with Malaysia during the Asean summit. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
Pakistan
October 29, 2025 10:50 AM Pakistan's defence minister threatened today to obliterate the ruling Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. The October clashes began after Pakistani air strikes this month on Kabul, the Afghan capital, among other locations, targeting the head of the Pakistani Taliban. The Taliban responded with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the 2,600-km border, which remains closed. Both nations agreed to a ceasefire brokered in Doha on Oct 19, but could not find common ground in a second round of talks mediated by Turkey and Qatar in Istanbul. 'Pakistan does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding,' Defence Minister Asif said in a post on X. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)
South Korea
28 October 2025 Issues expected to top the agenda of South Korean President Lee who will meet U.S. President Trump tomorrow, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, which Mr Trump will not attend: Trade; Defence and nuclear energy; North Korea; US visas for South Korean workers. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
Turkey
(29 October 2025) Nationwide festivities mark Türkiye’s 102nd Republic Day. (Source: TRTWorld - Turkey)
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October 28, 2025 Turkey has signed a deal to buy 20 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft worth $11 billion from Britain. (Source: Daily Ausaf - Pakistan)
28.10.25, 01:59 PM Earthquake of magnitude 6.1 hit western Turkey, centred in the town of Sindirgi in Balikesir province, at 10.48 pm local time at a depth of 5.99 km. Tremors were felt in Istanbul and nearby provinces. (Source: The Telegraph - India)
South America
Brazil
26/10/2025, Sunday Brazilian President Lula da Silva sharply criticized the United Nations Security Council during his visit to Malaysia, stating the global body has stopped working and failed to prevent major wars, including the war in Gaza. Lula's comments came during his three-day visit to Malaysia as a guest of honor at the ASEAN summit. (Source: Yeni Şafak - Turkey)
Global
26 Oct 2025 Week in Pictures: From elections in Ivory Coast to Russian strike in Kyiv and "Peace March" in Budapest, Hungary. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)
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