President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will have to navigate several thorny issues when the two meet this week during a high-stakes state visit at the White House. 

“We’re going to talk about a lot. It’s going to be a great meeting. And we’re going to have a look — we have a very good relationship,” Trump said Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Look, he likes China. I like the U.S. He loves China. I love the U.S. That’s the way it is. But we’re going to have a big — it’s a big deal tomorrow night. Everybody wants to be there. Everybody wants to be there,” Trump said. 

The two leaders will be forced to work through a myriad of issues including artificial intelligence safety, Taiwan, trade, the war in Iran and critical minerals as they work to maintain a fragile and occasionally frosty relationship amid deep mutual distrust and rising tensions between the geopolitical rivals.

The choreography

Wednesday’s visit marks the first state visit to the U.S. by the leader of China in more than a decade.

Xi was last in the U.S. for a state visit in September 2015 during the Obama administration. Trump visited China in May for talks with Xi.

Trump will be on the ground just outside of Washington at Joint Base Andrews for an arrival ceremony when Xi’s plane lands late Wednesday. The airport greeting is unusual for Trump as he traditionally greets foreign leaders at the White House and reflects the pomp and circumstance surrounding the visit. 

On Thursday, Trump and first lady Melania Trump will welcome Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at a ceremony held indoors on the State Floor of the White House. Trump and Xi will also participate in a review of troops in the Rose Garden before they head into formal, private bilateral talks. 

Xi and his wife will also be the guests of honor Thursday as Trump and the first lady host the Chinese delegation for a state dinner in the East Room, where both leaders are expected to deliver remarks.

“Thousands of people would love to be at that dinner,” Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office.

“This is a very tough ticket for me,” Trump said. “I’ve told a lot of very good friends of mine, ‘You just can’t come.'”

Guests scheduled to attend the state dinner include tech executives like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai of Google and Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, the White House and a source familiar told ABC News.

Also on the guest list are Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Jane Fraser, the CEO of Citigroup, and Tim Cook, who recently stepped down as the CEO of Apple.

On Friday, Xi and his wife are scheduled to return to the White House for a private tea with the Trumps, who will then take them on a tour of the National Archives to view historical national documents. Xi is expected to depart the U.S. later Friday.

Taiwan top of Xi’s mind

Taiwan will be top of mind for the Chinese premier as he has repeatedly called for an end of U.S. arms sales to the self-governing, democratic island.

China has long claimed the sovereign territory as its own and regularly conducts large-scale military drills, live-fire exercises, and daily air and naval patrols to apply pressure on the island. Taiwan relies heavily on U.S. military support to push back on China’s encroachments.

Xi is likely to push Trump to press pause on a proposed $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan which includes missiles, anti-drone weapons and air-defense systems. Trump has held off approving the sale and previously described the deal as a potential “negotiating chip” with China.

In their meeting in May, Xi warned Trump that if the issue of Taiwan is handled “improperly,” the two nations could “come into conflict,” China’s official state broadcaster Xinhua reported.

Tensions over the Middle East

Another glaring issue the two leaders could discuss is the widening conflict in the Middle East. 

The continuing conflict with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has dealt an economic blow to the U.S. as it grapples with historically high gas and diesel prices.

The Trump administration has notably downplayed taking action against China despite the U.S.’ stated goal of targeting all countries with financial ties to Iran as part of the U.S. Treasury’s offensive ‘Operation Economic Outcast.’

Trump in recent days also shrugged off reports that China had provided Iran with satellite imagery, saying, “I think he’s behaved reasonably well.” 

“When they say that China spies on us, I say, ‘You’re right, and we spy on them too,’ you know? We spy on them too,” Trump said. 

Several democratic lawmakers called on Trump to challenge Xi on Iran when the two meet. 

Trump “has an important opportunity to condemn China’s role in arming and enabling Iran, and to demand an end to their support,” the lawmakers said in a letter sent to the White House this week.

 AI guardrails and regulations

Senior White House officials who briefed reporters on the Chinese leader’s state visit said artificial intelligence will also be on the agenda. 

Officials did not preview what kinds of AI guardrails and regulations could be discussed between Xi and Trump but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who met with his Chinese counterpart over the weekend, said the two sides discussed setting up a notification system if there is an incident “that rises up to a national security level from AI.”

“…moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two A.I. powers in the world is very important,” Bessent said.

A renewed truce on tariffs? 

On trade, questions remain about the U.S. and China detente with some experts predicting the two leaders plan to renew a tariff truce and potentially announce additional trade deals on agriculture, aircraft, rare-earth and critical minerals, and Chinese purchase commitments.

During their May meeting, Trump said the topic of tariffs “wasn’t brought up,” but he was quick to claim that the U.S. secured many deals, including the purchase of aircrafts, engines and soybeans.

‘A small number of deliverables’ 

Experts expect few deliverables from the Thursday summit.

“This is going to be a summit that’s relatively underwhelming with a small number of deliverables, but I think that works mainly to China’s advantage,” said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

ABC News’ Emily Chang contributed to this report.