While neither side has been officially confirmed, their attendance at the multilateral gathering scheduled for Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 appears almost certain.
During a conference in central Seoul on Wednesday, Acting U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Joseph Yun hinted that Trump would meet President Lee Jae Myung at the summit, following their "successful" talks in Washington last month.
Similarly, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, currently in Beijing, said he believes Xi will visit South Korea, after having talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi earlier in the day.
Should it happen, it would be the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi since Trump took office for his second non-consecutive term earlier this year. It would also mark the first time in more than a decade that U.S. and Chinese presidents have been in South Korea at the same time, since the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, where leaders from over 50 countries gathered to discuss cooperative measures against nuclear terrorism.
Their possible encounter comes at a time of escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing across various sectors including security, trade, and technology, with both countries likely to leverage the summit to push their strategic agendas that could shape the global order.
With Trump pursuing protectionism under his America-first mantra and Xi criticizing Washington's unilateral, sweeping tariffs while promoting free trade and multilateralism, principles once central to U.S. policy, the summit will test how regional economies navigate the evolving global political and economic landscape, with outcomes likely to have implications far beyond the Korean Peninsula.
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