The Glossary
Kuala Lumpur Talks
The October 2025 working-level round that rescued the Busan meeting.
Definition
With the Geneva truce eleven days from expiry and escalations queued on both sides — U.S. port fees on Chinese-built ships, expanded blacklists, threatened 100% tariffs over rare-earth licensing — working-level teams met in Kuala Lumpur on October 25-26, 2025. They cleared enough of the rare-earth and port-fee impasse to allow the leaders' meeting in Busan four days later.
Why it matters
Kuala Lumpur is the template for how this relationship actually de-escalates: not in speeches, but in technical rounds that keep the escalators off while principals prepare.