China and the United States started a fresh round of trade talks in Stockholm on Monday in a bid to ease tensions over tariffs between the world’s two biggest economies.

Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are meeting at the offices of Sweden’s prime minister for two days of talks that Bessent has said will likely to lead to an extension of current tariff levels.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson greeted He, followed by Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, as the two teams arrived in separate motorcades.

Analysts say the talks led by He and Bessent could set the stage for a possible meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump later this year.

Before the talks got under way in Sweden, Beijing said it hoped the two sides could hold talks in the spirit of "mutual respect and reciprocity".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in a regular briefing that China sought to "enhance consensus through dialogue and communication, reduce misunderstandings, strengthen cooperation and promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations".

The talks are the third of their kind this year, nearly four months after Trump upended global trade with his sweeping tariff proposals, including an import tax that shot up to 145 percent on Chinese goods. China retaliated, sending global financial markets into a temporary tailspin.

The Stockholm meeting, following similar talks in Geneva and London in recent months, is set to extend a 90-day pause on those tariffs.

During the pause, US tariffs have been lowered to 30 percent on Chinese goods, and China set a 10 percent tariff on US products.

The Trump administration was fresh off a deal on tariffs with the European Union. (Agencies)