President Donald Trump has confirmed that Chinese President Xi Jinping will be making a trip to Washington later this year, marking another chapter in the complicated dance between the world's two largest economies.

"He's coming to the White House, yeah—toward the end of the year," Trump said during a Wednesday interview with NBC News that aired Sunday. The conversation happened the same day Trump and Xi wrapped up substantial discussions touching on trade, Taiwan, Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, and tensions with Iran.

Trump was quick to emphasize the relationship's importance. "These are the two most powerful countries in the world and we have a very good relationship," he noted. Xi's last U.S. visit was back in November 2023, when he met with former President Joe Biden and attended the APEC summit in San Francisco—his first stateside appearance since 2017.

Tariffs and Soybeans

When the conversation turned to tariffs, Trump defended his approach with characteristic confidence. He maintained that China is paying substantial tariffs that benefit the U.S. economy, adding that while tariffs have been "used against the U.S. for 40 years," he's applying them "very judiciously, very fairly."

According to Trump, Xi expressed admiration for American economic progress during their recent call and floated the idea of increasing China's purchases of U.S.-farmed soybeans. The discussion comes ahead of Trump's anticipated visit to Beijing in April, suggesting both sides are looking to grease the wheels of commerce.

Nuclear Negotiations Hit a Wall

While trade talks seem to be moving forward, nuclear arms control discussions are going nowhere fast. Last Friday, the U.S. proposed new trilateral nuclear arms talks with Russia and China following the expiration of New START, the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty. China, however, has declined to join the negotiations "at this stage." Russia, for its part, wants other nuclear powers like the UK and France at the table.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the administration's position clear in a Substack essay, arguing that arms control needs to evolve from bilateral to multilateral frameworks and that China must be part of future negotiations.

"Russia and China should not expect the United States to stand still while they shirk their obligations and expand their nuclear forces," Rubio wrote.

So we've got a White House visit on the calendar and soybean deals in the works, but the nuclear question remains unresolved—a pretty accurate snapshot of U.S.-China relations in 2025.