Bessent’s comments come after Vice President JD Vance met last week with India’s prime minister Narendra Modi.

The administration later walked back its initial proposal, and announced April 9 it would immediately hike tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, but scale back reciprocal tariffs on other countries for 90 days to a baseline of 10%. In response, China proceeded to boost its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to say whether the U.S. and China are in direct communication and whether President Trump has been in touch with President Xi.