US President Donald Trump has cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China, in an interview with Fox News at the close of his two-day Beijing summit with President Xi Jinping.

“I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” Trump said. “I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down.”

Trump said Washington’s established position — that it does not support Taiwanese independence — had not changed. He told reporters on the flight back to Washington that he and Xi had spoken “a lot” about the island but declined to say whether the US would defend it. Xi “feels very strongly” about Taiwan and “doesn’t want to see a movement for independence,” Trump said.

Chinese state media quoted Xi as warning at the summit: “The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations. If mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict.” Asked whether he foresaw conflict with China over Taiwan, Trump responded: “No, I don’t think so. I think we’ll be fine. [Xi] doesn’t want to see a war.”

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already considers itself a sovereign nation. China claims the self-governing island as its territory and has not ruled out taking it by force; it has ramped up military drills around Taiwan in recent years.

Trump said he would soon decide whether to proceed with an $11 billion package of US weapons to Taiwan — including advanced rocket launchers and missiles — that his administration announced late last year, and which Beijing condemned. He said he and Xi had discussed the package “in great detail” and that he intended to speak first to Taiwan’s leader.

“We’re not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China’s going to be OK with that,” Trump told Fox News. “But we’re not looking to have somebody say, ‘Let’s go independent because the United States is backing us.’”

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said his team had been monitoring the summit and accused China of escalating risk through “aggressive military actions and authoritarian oppression.”

The remarks close out a two-day Beijing visit that produced the Temple of Heaven optics and a reciprocal White House invitation for September 24.