Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced a flurry of deals on trade and critical minerals with four Southeast Asian nations during the first stop in Malaysia and is set to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday.

Negotiators from the world’s top two economies hashed out a framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, US officials said. The news sent Asian stocks soaring to record peaks.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for President Xi and I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One before landing in the Japanese capital Tokyo.

Wearing a gold tie and blue suit, Trump gave a few fist pumps before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo, several of its towers lit up in the red, white and blue of the American flag.

He later went to the Imperial Palace, where he shook hands and posed for photographs with Japanese Emperor Naruhito.

Thousands of police were guarding Tokyo after a knife-wielding man was arrested on Friday outside the US embassy, and an anti-Trump protest was planned in downtown Shinjuku.

Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Japanese counterpart Ryosei Akazawa, architects of the tariff deal agreed in July, discussed power grids as being a potential investment area over a sushi lunch in Tokyo earlier on Monday, local media reported.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is hoping to further impress Trump on Tuesday with promises to purchase US pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.

–Reuters–