WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US President Donald Trump will travel to Japan later this month before he attends the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday.

"We're going to do a visit, president's going to do a visit to Japan, and then move to Korea for the APEC conference, where the leaders as of right now will meet," Bessent said at a Washington event hosted by cable network CNBC.

Bessent gave no specific dates for the trip to the island nation but said it would come prior to APEC, which begins on October 31.

The US president is also to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit scheduled for October 26-28 in Kuala Lumpur, where he will observe the ceremonial signing of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia after deadly cross-border clashes.

Trump heads to Asia at a time of increased trade tensions, particularly with China, the world's largest economy after the United States.

Amid a Washington-Beijing tariff war this year, tit-for-tat duties reached triple-digit levels at one point, snarling supply chains.

While both sides subsequently de-escalated, China last week announced a curb on rare earth exports, a move that prompted Trump to threaten an additional 100-percent tariff on goods from China starting November 1.

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to meet in South Korea during the APEC gathering.

The US president on Friday threatened to scrap the face-to-face with Xi after the rare earth curbs, but Bessent said Wednesday he believes the two leaders are still expected to meet.

Conditions are also uncertain in Japan, where Sanae Takaichi's bid to become the country's first woman premier is in peril after the ruling coalition collapsed last week.