The Airport Meeting: Why Trump and Xi Chose the Runway Instead of Palaces
In an unusual scene for high-level diplomacy, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their long-awaited meeting Thursday at Gimhae International Airport in the South Korean city of Busan.
Rather than meeting in the customary palaces or diplomatic venues, the two leaders convened on the airport’s runway — a choice that quickly drew international attention.
On the tarmac, the U.S. presidential aircraft “Air Force One” was parked near an adjacent air base, while the official motorcades of both leaders lined up outside the facility where the closed-door meeting took place.
The reason behind the location
According to sources familiar with the matter and cited by CNN, the primary reason for holding the meeting at the airport was the extremely tight schedules of both presidents, who had overlapping official commitments on the same day.
The meeting was initially planned before Trump’s departure from Asia, but the proposed timing would have made it “short and rushed.” Both sides therefore agreed to postpone it to the following morning in Busan.
From a logistical standpoint, the airport provided a practical and secure setting. It allowed for swift coordination under the supervision of both nations’ security teams, avoiding lengthy diplomatic protocols and additional security arrangements.
An exceptional encounter
This was the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi during Trump’s second term. It took place as part of the U.S. president’s Asian tour, which included visits to Japan and South Korea, coinciding with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju.
Unlike Trump’s earlier meetings with Japanese and South Korean leaders — held in lavish locations such as Tokyo’s Akasaka Palace or the Gyeongju National Museum — this encounter with Xi was deliberately modest and functional, reflecting the pragmatic nature of discussions centered on economic and trade issues.
A sensitive moment and tense context
The meeting came just hours after Trump announced that he had instructed the U.S. Department of Defense to resume nuclear tests “on equal footing” with Russia and China — a move that sparked widespread international concern and added a layer of sensitivity to the talks.
At the same time, Xi Jinping was arriving in South Korea as part of a regional tour aimed at deepening economic ties across East Asia. Busan thus served as the ideal meeting point, both logistically and symbolically, for the two leaders’ intersecting agendas.
