Xi-Trump meeting can chart course for constructive ties

Until the NATO meeting was rescheduled, there was plenty of hullabaloo over US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson planning to skip the NATO foreign ministers meeting, originally scheduled for April 5-6, in order to attend the meeting between the Chinese and US presidents.

Many interpreters were unanimous on one point: The Trump administration was attaching more importance to relations with China than those with NATO.

While this may be an over-interpretation, since the relationships are hardly comparable, it does reveal the truth that Beijing and Washington share an eagerness to ballast their ties.