US President Donald Trump said he will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a summit in South Korea, according to excerpts of an interview with Fox News released Friday.

“We're going to be meeting in a couple of weeks (...) in South Korea with President Xi Jinping,” Trump told the “Sunday Morning Futures” program, as part of the APEC summit.

“We have a separate meeting,” added the president, who plans to arrive in South Koreaon October 29 for a two-day visit.

The APEC summit will be held from October 31 to November 1.

Last week, Trump threatened to cancel his meeting with Xi and raise tariffs on Chinese goods by 100% after Beijing issued new controls on rare earth exports.

The US president considered these measures by China to be “ extremely aggressive .”

Markets plunged amid renewed tensions between the world's largest economies, and then Trump struck a more conciliatory tone."The United States wants to help China, not hurt it," he said on his Truth Social network.

The meeting between Trump and Xi would be the first since the Republican tycoon returned to power in January.

Beijing and Washington reached a tense truce months ago in the bilateral trade battle that began at the beginning of the year and put trade between the two powers in jeopardy, but tensions have intensified again.

Tensions have escalated since the trade war escalated in April, even though the two leaders approved a preliminary agreement by phone on September 18 to allow TikTok to operate in the United States and agreed to meet at the end of October.

China also announced the imposition of “ special port fees ” on U.S.-built and operated vessels, calling the measure a “ defensive action.” The Chinese regime justified its decision by arguing that the port fees imposed by Washington on Chinese ships “ seriously harm China’s interests.”