A breakthrough in the tariff standoff between the United States and China emerged on Tuesday evening.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are poised to meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland over the weekend to discuss trade and economic matters, according to their respective agencies. China reportedly confirmed there will be talks.

“I was going to be in Switzerland to negotiate with the Swiss. Turns out, the Chinese team is traveling through Europe and they will be in Switzerland also. So, we will meet on Saturday and Sunday,” Bessent said during a Fox News interview.

.@SecScottBessent: “The world has been coming to the U.S. and China has been the missing piece. I was going to be in Switzerland to negotiate with the Swiss. Turns out, the Chinese team is traveling through Europe and they will be in Switzerland also. So, we will meet on Saturday… pic.twitter.com/QJZHl98bOx

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 6, 2025

While many countries received a 90-day reprieve for “Liberation Day” tariffs above the baseline rate of 10% last month, the United States increased the overall penalty on Chinese goods to 145%. Beijing responded by raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%.

“The world has been coming to the U.S. and China has been the missing piece,” Bessent said. He added later that the United States and China have “shared interests” and stressed that the current situation “isn’t sustainable, as I’ve said before, especially on the Chinese side.”

Protests erupted in China last month as factory workers in Suining, Hunan, and Inner Mongolia demanded unpaid wages and benefits after factory closures triggered by Trump’s steep tariffs. The economy in the United States has also been impacted, with shipments from China falling and growing concerns about price increases.

“We don’t want to decouple; what we want is fair trade,” Bessent said.

Bessent and Greer, who are traveling to Switzerland later this week, are also expected to meet with the country’s president, Karin Keller-Sutter, to discuss trade.

“At President Trump’s direction, I am negotiating with countries to rebalance our trade relations to achieve reciprocity, open new markets, and protect America’s economic and national security,” Greer said. “I look forward to having productive meetings with some of my counterparts as well as visiting with my team in Geneva who all work diligently to advance U.S. interests on a range of multilateral issues.”

Trump administration officials have been negotiating on trade with a host of nations over the past several weeks and have signaled progress in talks with the likes of India, South Korea, and Japan.

Tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan dramatically spiked Tuesday after India launched multiple airstrikes on several parts of Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled territory.

The Indian military said it struck nine sites where “terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” reported BBC. Pakistan denied the claim, alleging that Indian strikes hit civilian areas and killed two children, according to its military.

India’s embassy to the United States said the strike, dubbed Operation Sindoor, was in response to a terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir on April 22 that left 26 civilians dead. According to India, a few of the terrorists, who are accused of specifically targeting Hindus, were from Pakistan.

The terror attack happened as Vice President JD Vance visited India on a four-day trip, which included a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Following the terror attack, tensions between the longtime rivals escalated, with cross-border small arms fire and the suspension of a river water-sharing treaty.

“India has credible leads, technical inputs, testimony of the survivors and other evidence pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in this attack,” the embassy said in a statement, calling its actions “focused and precise.”

The statement added that India was hopeful Pakistan would take action against the terrorists, but instead “indulged in denial and made allegations of false flag operations against India.”

Despite India stating that its strikes were meant to be non-escalatory by attacking “terror camps” and not Pakistani civilian, economic, or military targets, Pakistan vowed to respond to the “cowardly attack,” and followed up by firing artillery just across the border in India-administered Kashmir, reported BBC.

“The treacherous enemy has launched a cowardly attack on five locations within Pakistan,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement. “This heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished. Pakistan reserves the absolute right to respond decisively to this unprovoked Indian attack — a resolute response is already underway.”

Sharif added that the Pakistani people and its forces “are fully prepared to confront and defeat any threat with our strength and determination.”

Pakistan claimed it shot down two Indian jets and one drone, though India has not confirmed this report, according to BBC.

“The enemy will never be allowed to achieve its malicious aims,” the statement concluded.

President Donald Trump called the strikes “a shame” on Tuesday.

“We just heard about it just as we were walking in the doors of the Oval [Office],” Trump said. “I just hope it ends very quickly.”

India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval briefed Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who is also serving as U.S. National Security Advisor) on Wednesday about the escalating conflict.

Rubio said he is monitoring the situation and echoed Trump’s statements for the conflict to end quickly, adding that he will continue to “engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution.”

A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “very concerned” about the escalation and called for “maximum military restraint,” reported BBC.