Over the course of two days from April 6 to April 7, President Trump and President Xi Jinping, two leaders of the biggest economies in the world, met for the first time joining at President Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

“I think it’s a very important meeting that has the potential to change much of what we know as China-US relationship,” said Ian Choi (10). “It also gives us a perspective of where we are right now in our agreements.”

However, despite the newsworthiness of the summit, according to the New York Times, President Trump’s decision to Syria on the same day overshadowed the summit, putting much of the spotlight of the press off of the meeting. Yet the meeting was a pivotal part to future diplomacy of US and China as the two leaders discussed issues concerning trade and the continuously rising threats of North Korea.

“Trump-Xi summit was a very essential meeting to much of the issues we have right now,” said Hayoon Song (10). “It’s a shame that the spotlight is taken off of it with Syria, which is also a crucial topic we must know just as much as the summit.”

Experts, like Jamie Metz, former NSC Official, laid concerns over the agreement over North Korea. While both did agree on working together to resolve the issue, according to CNN, President Trump’s continuous request of the Chinese government for additional pressure on the on the young dictator will most likely not be met as China has no incentives towards major stances against North Korea.

“North Korea is a very tricky subject matter to the world,” said Ian. “I think that for both China and the US, some cooperation between them is necessary for progress in solving the issue over North Korea.”

Some claimed concerns over President Trump’s anti-China stance and its affects on the meeting. As during the 2016 election, according to the New York Times, President Trump has made clear claims over his distaste over China, blaming the country for US’s job losses as well.

“There is a lot of concern on what and how Trump thinks about the rest of the world, not only China,” said Morgan Miller, AP Economics teacher. “But from his quotes, I think he realized how important the relationship between China and US was, which is a positive aspect.”

Although the meeting had a positive atmosphere, according to CNN, no concrete agreements were made between the two leaders as both planned and framed for future negotiations and promised to make progress in the next hundred days.

“Relationships between China and US is very important,” said Mr. Miller. “Hopefully they figured out something for North Korea situation and the carbon emissions as the US and China are the two most carbon producing countries in the world, yet with the current administration policies, it seems unlikely.”