President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump received Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday to begin a 3 day state visit. This greeting on the tarmac is the first of its kind for a foreign leader since 1962, when John F. Kennedy welcomed the prime minister of Britain. The ceremony included a red carpet and a B-1B Lancer bomber flyover during the national anthem, with six F-16s and six F-22s fighter jets parked on the concrete behind the receiving party.

The visit, which is Xi's first U.S. state visit since 2015, includes a formal visit to the White House and a state dinner tomorrow. The leaders will discuss chip exports, rare earths, and a proposed 6 month extension to the existing trade truce. U.S. officials also plan to present a pact on AI safety and a notification mechanism for security incidents, while a senior official noted that Beijing has not sufficiently addressed fentanyl concerns after about 35,000 Americans died from the drug in the past year.