I write this as Donald Trump is preparing for his visit to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping. He is set to meet the Chinese leader on May 14 for a two-day session. I will follow up with another article when the talks have taken place and the two sides have reported on their impressions of what was achieved. When the visit was planned, Trump had imposed and then eased the stiff tariffs he had levied on imports from China. Then the Beijing talks were planned to deal with trade issues. But now, the focus is likely to be the war in Iran that was launched by Trump on February 28 with little planning. It is now known that the attack on Iran was prompted by a push by Benjamin Netanyahu, who is afraid of Iran becoming a nuclear power.

There is little doubt that the war in Iran, which has now developed into skirmishes involving several states in the area, will feature prominently in the Beijing talks. China, like Pakistan, is worried with the way its own interests in the area would be adversely affected by the continuing war in the Middle East. The two countries have close relations and have been involved in persuading Iran to reach a deal with Washington to end the war. Pakistan, which hosted a round of US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad - where the American delegation was led by Vice President JD Vance and included President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and US Special Envoy to the Middle East........

© The Express Tribune