G-20 outcome positive but tough negotiations still have to take place: PM Lee

Buenos Aires

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong hopes the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will result in a constructive outcome that can be built upon.

"It doesn't mean all the problems will be solved tonight, but some constructive directions can be pointed (to), and further steps hopefully later on can be taken," Mr Lee told Singapore media in an interview ahead of that meeting on Saturday (Sunday morning Singapore time).

He noted that if the US and China do not handle their differences well, they may well be headed for a prolonged period of extensive and far-reaching tensions, frictions and difficulties.

But it would not be exact to call this possible chapter a new Cold War, Mr Lee said, as unlike "the Soviet Union against the rest of the world" in the past, the US and China are deeply …