(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, discussed trade and the future of social media app TikTok in a high-stakes call Friday.

“I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China,” Trump wrote on social media. “We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal.”

China’s U.S. embassy described the call as “pragmatic, positive and constructive” but confirmed that a deal had not been finalized as of Friday.

“The Chinese government respects the wishes of the company in question, and would be happy to see productive commercial negotiations … The U.S. side needs to provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese investors,” its statement read in part.

Trump confirmed he and Xi would meet in person next month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in South Korea.

Friday’s phone call was expected to solidify a framework deal that would separate the app from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, avoiding a U.S. ban after months of extensions from the Trump administration.

Following a U.S.-China trade meeting in Madrid earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a deal outline had been reached but did not specify details.

Who will own the app is still unknown, though sources told the Wall Street Journal that TikTok’s U.S. ownership could fall to an investor consortium including software giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Why does TikTok face a US ban?

The tentative TikTok deal has been in the works for months. A ban on the app was scheduled to go into effect in January under a Biden-era law requiring ByteDance to divest from the app or face a ban in the U.S.

Proponents of the ban cite national security risks and data privacy concerns as reasons for the shutdown.

That group previously included Trump, who tried to issue the first TikTok ban back in 2020, but has since reversed course and vowed to “save” the viral video app. Since taking office again, he has extended TikTok’s deadline four times.

US-China trade talks also on table

On Thursday, Trump said the administration was “very close to deals” on both TikTok and “also trade.”

Friday’s call was the second with Xi since Trump returned to the White House and imposed sky-high tariffs on China, triggering a series of back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the world’s two largest economies. 

As of September, both sides have paused their tariffs, but questions remain about the future of U.S.-China trade relations.