President Trump said Chinese officials reached out to members of his administration to say they want to restart negotiations to end a bitter trade war between the two countries that has shaken global financial markets and resulted in a tit-for-tat escalation of tariffs.

“China called last night our top trade people and said, ‘Let’s get back to the table,’ so we’ll be getting back to the table, and I think they want to do something,” Trump said Monday during the G-7 summit in France.

“They’ve been hurt very badly, but they understand this is the right thing to do. And I have great respect for it,” the president said as he met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in Biarritz. “This is a very positive development for the world.”

China’s Vice Premier Liu He, who has been heading up the trade talks with the US in Washington, told reporters Monday that Beijing was willing to resolve the trade standoff through “calm” negotiations.

“We firmly oppose the escalation of the trade war,” he said, adding that it “is not conducive to China, the US and the interests of people all over the world.”

Trump seized on those comments.

“They want calm, and that’s a great thing, frankly. And one of the reasons that he’s a great leader, President Xi, and one of the reasons that China’s a great country is they understand how life works,” Trump said, declining to say whether he had been communicating directly with Xi.

“So we are going to start talking very seriously, and we’ll see how that goes,” the president added.

At the same time, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he wasn’t aware of any phone calls between Washington and Beijing, Reuters reported.

And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined to provide details about the calls.

The apparent breakthrough comes a day after the White House clarified comments Trump made at the summit that he had “second thoughts” when asked about his escalating trade war with China.

Hours later, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released a statement that said Trump’s answer was “misinterpreted” and that he meant “he regrets not raising the tariffs higher.”

China last Friday announced it would hit the US with retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of US goods, including auto parts and agricultural products.

Then Trump upped the ante, saying he would raise to 15 percent the tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports due to take effect Sept. 1 and Dec. 15 and increase the 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 30 percent on Oct. 1.

He also “ordered” American companies to find alternatives from doing business in China.

The Dow Jones plummeted more than 600 points by the end of Friday’s trading day.

The most recent talks in Shanghai between Washington and Beijing ended without an agreement in July and representatives from both countries are scheduled to meet again next month in Washington.

With Post wires