Catenaa, Tuesday, March 17, 2026- US President Donald Trump announced that his highly anticipated summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping is being postponed, amidst the conflict with Iran.

“We’re resetting the meeting,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House during a sit-down with the Irish prime minister. “We’re working with China; they were fine with it.”

Trump did not announce a new date for the summit, but said it would take place in “about five or six weeks,” injecting uncertainty into the two countries’ ongoing trade negotiations.

The move underscores how Trump’s war with Iran has jumbled his foreign policy agenda.

The conflict adds another point of tension into the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, which has already been strained by trade and the status of Taiwan.

Trump said he asked China to postpone the meeting, which was originally slated for March 31 to April 2, by “a month or so” to allow him to remain in Washington amid the war, now in its third week.

The US president had previously suggested the summit could be put off if China did not agree to help the US secure the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for energy supplies that has been all but closed off since the start of the war.

Trump stressed that he has a “good relationship with China” and “looks forward” to seeing Xi.

“China actually is, has become, economically for us, very good. As you know, it’s much different than it was in the past,” the president told reporters.

Administration officials have also sought to downplay the impact of rescheduling on US-China ties.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the summit “would be rescheduled because of logistics” and Trump’s desire to oversee the war, and not because of frustrations with Beijing.

“Traveling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal,” Bessent said on CNBC.