China's Xi Jinping took centre stage at an annual gathering of Pacific Rim leaders in South Korea on Friday, meeting Canadian and Japanese counterparts after securing a fragile trade truce with U.S. President Donald Trump, Reuters reported.
That agreement, struck just before Trump left South Korea, skipping the main two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, cooled spiralling tensions between the world's two largest economies that jolted global commerce.
With Trump playing host for the White House's annual Halloween party back in Washington, Xi sought to cast China as the predictable champion of free and open trade at the forum, a role the U.S. has dominated for decades, according to Reuters .
