THE US AND China have reached a “framework” for a deal to settle their row over TikTok, following a lengthy dispute over the site’s presence in the US.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the announcement after the two sides held trade talks in Madrid today.

“We have a framework for a TikTok deal,” he told reporters, adding that US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping will speak on Friday to “complete” the agreement.

Previously, the US Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China or be barred in the US on national security grounds.

But Trump has unilaterally extended on separate occasions, including last January and April, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep the site running in the US.

That delay was set to expire at midnight on 5 April and was today extended one again.

Though Trump supported a ban in his first term as president, he has become a TikTok defender in his second term, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election.

TikTok has repeatedly said it prioritises user safety, and China’s Foreign Ministry has said China’s government has never and will not ask companies to “collect or provide data, information or intelligence” held in foreign countries.

– © With reporting by AFP2025