00:00Now, Jorge Haini is a former Chilean government minister and ambassador to China.
00:05He joins us now. Thanks so much for your time.
00:08We're seeing the two presidents visiting each other.
00:10President Xi is going to be in Washington.
00:13This follows President Trump's visit to Beijing in May.
00:16So how significant is it that these visits are taking place at the very highest level?
00:22It is extremely significant.
00:24Let me just underscore that it had been 11 years since a Chinese president, President Xi in this case, had
00:33visited Washington.
00:34It was in 2015 when he visited President Obama in the White House at the time.
00:41Only five Chinese presidential visits have taken place to Washington in history.
00:48So this is extremely important.
00:50What is also important is that President Xi and President Trump are meeting so often.
00:55As you mentioned, they met in May in Beijing.
00:59They met in Busan, South Korea in October of last year.
01:03And there's a very strong possibility that they will continue to meet this year in Shenzhen at the APEC summit
01:09and then in Miami at the G20 summit.
01:14So it is very important that the top leaders of these two countries continue to interact and move forward on
01:23their agenda.
01:25U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Chinese Vice Premier Hurley Feng have been talking in New York.
01:32They're talking about very successful meetings in the Big Apple.
01:37Does that suggest that when the two presidents meet, we're going to see some real breakthroughs despite the very real
01:44challenges?
01:46Yes, I certainly hope so.
01:49It seems to me that trade is obviously one area in which we should see some movement.
01:55There has been talk about operationalizing what has been called the Board of Trade between the United States and China
02:02to sort out these very important trade issues.
02:06There has been also talk about AI and that both Washington and Beijing will formalize some sort of way that
02:16they can interact on AI notifications if there are problems.
02:22There's also, of course, the very thorny issue of rare earth and critical minerals that is also on the agenda.
02:30You mentioned AI, and there has been so much news of late fears that AI could get completely out of
02:36control.
02:37Do you see it as comforting that we're likely to see an agreement between these two powerful nations, the leaders
02:44of AI,
02:45that the guardrails would be in place, that they would communicate with each other if national security was at risk?
02:52I think it is.
02:54I remember when President Biden and President Xi met in San Francisco some years ago.
03:00One of the things they agreed on was that on the nuclear issue, they would not let AI make the
03:06decisions for obvious reasons.
03:08And now that AI has made so much progress in the course of the past few years, it seems to
03:13me agreement on coordinating information and exchanges on issues of national security is of the highest significance.
03:22Thank you so much for speaking to us.
03:24Jorge Haini is a former Chilean government minister and ambassador to China.
03:28Thank you so much for joining us.
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