US President Donald Trump headed for Asia on Saturday and high-stakes trade talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, saying that he would also like to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his trip.

Trump is set to meet Xi in South Korea on the last day of his regional swing in a bid to seal a deal to end the bruising trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

He will also visit Malaysia and Japan on his first trip to Asia since he returned to the White House in January in a blaze of tariffs and international dealmaking.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he hoped for a “very good meeting” with Xi, adding that he expected China to make a deal to avoid further 100 per cent tariffs that are due to come into effect on November 1.

As he left Washington, Trump added to speculation that he could meet Kim for the first time since 2019 while on the Korean peninsula.

“I would. If you want to put out the word, I’m open to it,” Trump said aboard the presidential plane. “I had a great relationship with him.”

Asked if he was open to North Korea’s demand to be recognised as a nuclear state as a precondition for talks, Trump replied: “Well, I think they are sort of a nuclear power… They got a lot of nuclear weapons, I’ll say that.”

The two leaders last met in Hanoi during Trump’s first term. Kim has said he would also be open to meeting the US president if Washington drops its demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear arsenal.

Seoul’s reunification minister has said there is a “considerable” chance that Trump and Kim will meet while the US leader is in South Korea, mainly for a regional summit.

Trump’s first stop will be Malaysia, where he arrives on Sunday, for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit — a meeting he skipped several times in his first term.

Trump is set to sign a trade deal with Malaysia, but, more importantly, he will oversee the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia in his continued quest for a Nobel Peace Prize.

He said he also expected to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the summit to improve ties with the leftist leader after months of bad blood.

Trump’s next destination will be Tokyo, where he arrives on Monday. He will meet conservative Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday after she was named this week as Japan’s first woman prime minister.

The US leader said he had “heard great things about her” and hailed the fact that she was an acolyte of assassinated former premier Shinzo Abe, with whom he had close ties.

Japan has escaped the worst of the tariffs Trump slapped on countries around the world to end what he calls unfair trade balances that are “ripping off the United States.”

However, the highlight of the trip is expected to be South Korea, with Trump due to land in the southern port city of Busan on Wednesday ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Trump will meet South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, address an APEC lunch with business leaders and meet US tech bosses for dinner on the sidelines of the summit in the city of Gyeongju.

He will meet Xi on Thursday for the first time since his return to office.

Global markets will be watching closely to see if they can halt the trade war sparked by Trump’s sweeping tariffs, especially after a recent dispute over Beijing’s rare-earth curbs.

Trump initially threatened to cancel the meeting and announced the fresh 100 per cent tariffs during that row, before saying he would go ahead after all.

He said he would also discuss fentanyl with Xi, as he raises pressure on Beijing to curb the trafficking of the powerful opioid and cracks down on Latin American drug cartels.

Incumbent Alassane Ouattara is the overwhelming favourite to secure a fourth term in Ivory Coast’s presidential election on Saturday, a task facilitated by the barring of several key opposition figures.

Ouattara, 83, has wielded power in the world’s top cocoa producer since 2011, when the country began reasserting itself as a west African economic powerhouse.

His allies are targeting a decisive win in the first round to avoid a run-off vote.

Nearly nine million Ivorians will vote between 8:00 am (0800 GMT) and 6:00 pm, choosing between five contenders.

“It is hard to imagine any surprise at the end of this election… since opposition heavyweights aren’t present,” Gilles Yabi of think tank Wathi told AFP.

Leading rivals — former president Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam — have been barred from standing, the former for a criminal conviction and the latter for acquiring French nationality.

– Banned rallies –

Their parties have encouraged Ivorians to protest against this decision and Ouattara’s predicted fourth term.

Four people, including one policeman, have died in sporadic unrest, while on Monday an independent electoral commission building was torched.

The government has responded by banning demonstrations and the judiciary has sentenced several dozen people to three years in prison for disturbing the peace.

Some 44,000 security forces have been deployed across the country of 30 million to keep protests in check, especially in former opposition fiefdoms in the south and west.

A night-time curfew was in place on Friday and Saturday in Yamoussoukro region, where the political capital is located.

Authorities say they want to avoid “chaos” and a repeat of unrest surrounding the 2020 presidential election, in which 85 people died.

– ‘More fear than harm’ –

“I ask you to closely monitor your neighbourhoods… We must be ready to protect Ivory Coast,” Ouattara said during his final rally on Thursday.

“The election is frightening but we dare to believe there will be more fear than harm,” said Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly, head of the Independent Electoral Commission.

On Wednesday, Gbagbo condemned the upcoming poll as a “civilian coup d’etat” and “electoral robbery”.

“Those who could have won have been eliminated. I do not accept this,” he said without giving clear directions to his supporters for Saturday’s ballot.

Turnout will be key.

Voters in southern and western regions that are historically pro-Gbagbo or pro-Thiam could shun the polls in the absence of voting instructions from their leaders.

Meanwhile, the ruling RHDP is hopeful for a strong showing in the pro-Ouattara north.

– Four candidates –

None of the four rival candidates represents an established party nor do they have the reach of the RHDP.

Former trade minister and agri-businessmen Jean-Louis Billon, 60, hopes to rally backers from his former stable, the Democratic Party.

Former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, 76, is looking to garner votes from supporters of her ex-husband.

The left-wing vote hangs in the balance between Simone Gbagbo and Ahoua Don Mello, a civil engineer and independent Pan-African with Russian sympathies.

Then there is centrist Henriette Lagou, a moderate who also stood in the 2015 presidential poll, garnering less than one percent.

Ouattara came to power in the throes of a crisis following the 2010-2011 presidential clash between him and Gbagbo, which cost more than 3,000 lives among their supporters.

The government points to several years of strong economic growth and general security, despite jihadist threats on its borders.

Critics deplore the fact that the undisputed growth has only benefitted a small portion of the population and has been accompanied by a spiralling cost of living.

Nearly 1,000 civilian observers from Ivorian society are monitoring the vote, alongside another 251 from west African economic bloc ECOWAS and the African Union.

Results are expected early next week.

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