President Trump says he did not press Chinese President Xi Jinping to help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil-traffic waterway that Iran blockaded to gain leverage in the Middle East conflict.
At the same time, Mr. Trump said he thinks China will act on its own, given its reliance on Iranian oil.
“When you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return,” Mr. Trump said Friday on Air Force One on his way back from China.
“I don’t need favors,” he said. “I think [Mr. Xi] will. I think, automatically, he’d like to see it opened up. He gets about 40% of his energy, or his oil, from the strait. We get none. We don’t need it.”
Iran has maintained an effective blockade of all Western-linked ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz since early March, a form of retaliation for Mr. Trump’s decision to join forces with Israel and strike the Islamic republic.
The blockade has throttled global energy markets, with hundreds of ships and millions of barrels of oil trapped in the Persian Gulf.
European allies and other nations have discussed the need to reopen the strait but have been reluctant to get dragged into the war.
Allies have grumbled about the lack of communication and coordination from the U.S. before Mr. Trump launched airstrikes on Iran.
Mr. Trump has toggled between complaining about the lack of action from NATO allies and saying the U.S. doesn’t need their help.
The president said he discussed the situation with Mr. Xi, and they are unified on overall goals.
“We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar about (how) we want it to end. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open,” Mr. Trump said before leaving Beijing.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had a “good phone call” with Mr. Trump as the U.S. leader flew home from China.
“We agree: Iran must come to the negotiating table now. It must open the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons,” Mr. Merz said on X.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, writing on social media, said she also spoke with Mr. Trump. She said they discussed Iran and his visit to China.
Earlier on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry said the spillover effects from the war in Iran “put a heavy strain on global economic growth, supply chains, international trade order and the stability of global energy supply, which hurts the common interests of the international community.”
“There is no point in continuing this conflict, which should not have happened in the first place,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said. “To find an early way to resolve the situation is in the interest of not only the U.S. and Iran, but also regional countries and the rest of the world.”
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