STORY: U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping made progress on a TikTok agreement and would meet face-to-face in six weeks in South Korea to discuss trade, illicit drugs and Russia's war in Ukraine.

The two sides appeared to lower tensions during the first call in three months between the leaders of the two superpowers, but it was not immediately clear that the call had yielded firm agreement that had been expected over the fate of the popular short-video app.

The leaders did agree to further talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that starts on October 31 in Gyeongju, South Korea.

"He approved the TikTok deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that there could be a "formality" remaining in terms of signing the agreement. "The TikTok deal is well on its way."

Trump also suggested positive movement on trade, fentanyl and the Russia-Ukraine war during the call, which he said lasted for about two hours.

"I believe he would like to see it ended," Trump said of Xi's view of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Beijing's final approval of a framework deal reached by the two sides earlier this week is one of the hurdles Trump needed to clear to keep TikTok open. Congress had ordered the app shut down for U.S. users by January 2025 if its U.S. assets weren't sold by Chinese owner ByteDance.

China's statement made no reference to any agreement on TikTok specifically. Trump had signaled multiple times this week that a deal might be forthcoming.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 19, 2025)(UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SPEAKING TO REPORTERS IN OVAL OFFICE

2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING QUESTION ON TRUMP'S CALL WITH CHINA'S PRESIDENT XI JINPING

TRUMP: "It was great. I had a great call with President Xi. And as you know, we approved the TikTok deal and we're in the process. We have some great investors, some of the biggest in the world, American investors, great people. And we look forward to getting that deal closed."

REPORTER: "Is it fully approved? The Chinese statements..."

TRUMP: "Well, I think, I think so. I mean, when you say fully approved and know what that means, we have to get, we have to get it signed. I guess it could be a formality. I found his word to be very good. President Xi and I had a long talk. We talked for almost 2 hours, it started at 8:00 in the morning. And I think it was a very good talk. We talked about trade. We talked about war. We talked about a lot of things. We talked about Russia, Ukraine, obviously, and Gaza, we talked about a lot of subjects. It was a long call. It was a good call. We have a very good relationship. But the TikTok deal is well on its way, as you know. And the investors are getting ready. And I think China wanted to see it stay open, too. They wanted to see it. And I can tell you, the young people in our country wanted to see it stay open very badly because, and if you take a look at my numbers, no Republican has ever done anything like it. We had massive numbers of youth vote. And by the way, helped very much by Charlie Kirk."

3. REPORTERS IN OVAL OFFICE

4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "With this deal today, are you confident that the CCP won't be exerting control?"

TRUMP: "Yeah, we're going to have a very, very tight control. And look, it's an amazing thing that's been created. There's tremendous value with TikTok. And I'm a little prejudiced because I frankly did so well on it. You know,."

5. REPORTERS IN OVAL OFFICE

6. (SOUNDBITE)(English)U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING QUESTION ON FEE OVER TIKTOK DEAL

TRUMP: "Well, it hasn't been fully negotiated, but we'll get something from the standpoint that we were talking. We put up a lot, we spent a lot of money on letting this come and letting this, you know, it's a very, very big deal. It's a very, it's a very powerful deal. And the United States really, I see it when people were saying 'save TikTok, save TikTok', So many people, it's a big thing. And, you know, China can be very proud that they were able to get that started. And so I very much appreciate President Xi is working with us on that."

7. REPORTERS IN OVAL OFFICE

8. (SOUNDBITE)(English)U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"President Xi and I spoke about it (Russia's war on Ukraine), and I believe that he really would like to see it done also. And I think he's going to work with us to help."

9. REPORTERS IN OVAL OFFICE

10. (SOUNDBITE)(English)U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"That's a war that should have never happened. It would have never happened and it didn't happen for four years when I was here, it didn't happen."

REPORTER ASKING: "Have you considered cutting funding, even promises made by the Biden administration?"

TRUMP: "Well, we're not spending any money on the war. You know, we're being paid for everything we said. Unlike Biden, he gave them $350 billion. And it's just, it was shocking. We're not spending any money on the war. The war is being funded by Nato. Nato is buying our equipment, in fact. I don't want to make money on that war. I don't want to. But we are actually making money in that war because they're buying our equipment."

9. REPORTERS IN OVAL OFFICE