3/17 - Jonathan Savage, FOX News - Operation: Epic Fury
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Transcript
12 segmentsPresident Trump indicating he would like to delay his anticipated meeting with China's Xi Jinping so that the former can focus on the situation with Iran while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acting as the lead U.S. emissary to China's financial leadership. Fox News Radio's Jonathan Savage joins us now. Good morning, Jonathan. Hello, good morning. I should say good afternoon. Jonathan, Scott Bessent said that the postponement has nothing to do with the situation in the strait of Hormuz. Are we to believe that? I think for the most part we have to, but perhaps it's fairly convenient to be able to postpone this in the light of the... of what's going on, because China's in a very different position from the United States as regards all this. China is a major purchaser of Iranian oil and our major critic of US military action in Iran. Now, China has been able to get some oil out through the Strait of Hormuz, some oil from Iran, which perhaps... suggest that there's no particular desire to get involved in opening up the street any further and put its own Navy at risk. So I think for the most part, moving this summit a little bit further down the road opens up the possibility that the Iran war could come to an end by that point and it wouldn't overshadow these important negotiations. And some ships identifying themselves as being associated with China in order to avoid being targeted. Was that, in your opinion, an unintended consequence of this action, possibly strengthening China's situation here? Perhaps. We have seen Iran allow a number of ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, ships which are not associated with the United States or its allies, and the White House today saying they're seeing a trickle of vessels. passing through the Strait of Hormuz, but for the most part, it does remain very difficult to get anything to go down there, and it is having a major impact on regional trade and a global energy crisis, particularly affecting countries in Southeast Asia. President Trump, as we know, has been trying to put together a coalition to reopen the strait, naval escorts, and so far countries like Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy. and the United Kingdom have either outright declined to help or have been at best hesitant about it.
Right, and we did report that this morning. One of the focuses or the main focus of the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping is supposed to be trade and the president of the U.S. asking China to buy more U.S. agricultural and energy products and crackdown on the flow of fentanyl. Obviously, that is going to be somewhat overshadowed by the situation in Iran. But is it safe to say that those talks will still be productive? I think they all hope so. And what we've just had are a couple of days of pre-negotiations in Paris between the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chinese Vice Premier Hiling Fung. And both sides describe these talks as being constructive and candid and have indicated a willingness to move forward because neither side wants their leader to meet up with the other side's president and come away empty-handed. They all want people to present this as being a worthwhile summit. And I think if it happens, it's a sign that they are happy that things are moving in the right direction. China has signaled an openness to buy more agricultural goods from the United States. And the United States has, for its own part, outlined that it will be willing to change its strategy on tariffs. It had imposed tariffs up to 145% on Chinese goods earlier. So this was all suggesting perhaps they're hoping to get towards an era of managed competition rather than a totally adversarial relationship. We appreciate your perspective. Thanks for joining us this morning. Fox News Radio's Jonathan Savage.