Chinese President Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation with his American counterpart Donald Trump today, Xinhua reported, citing the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, BTA reports.
According to the Chinese ministry, the conversation took place at the initiative of the US president.
The White House has not yet commented on this information, the Associated Press notes.
Yesterday, Trump said that it is "extremely difficult to reach a deal" with Xi Jinping.
The long-awaited phone call comes amid accusations between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks over critical rare earth metals, a dispute that threatens to shatter a fragile truce in the trade war between the world's two largest economies, Reuters noted.
On May 12, the two countries reached a 90-day agreement to freeze some of the three-digit tariffs they had imposed on each other since Trump took office in January.