US President Donald Trump has defended sweeping tariffs on imports that sent shockwaves through global stock markets, saying "sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something".
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday, he said jobs and investment would return to the US to make it "wealthy like never before".
Trump's top officials stressed that the tariffs - announced last week - would be implemented as planned, playing down recession fears.
Just hours after Trump's comments, stock markets plunged in Asia early on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 dropping by 6.3%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 9.8%.
On Friday, all three major stock indexes in the US fell more than 5%, while the S&P 500 dropped almost 6% in the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.
Saudi Arabia's stock exchange - which trades on Sundays - ended nearly 7% lower, its biggest daily loss since the pandemic, state-owned media said.
US banking giant JP Morgan has predicted a 60% chance of a US and global recession following Trump's tariffs announcement.
On Friday, all three major stock indexes in the US fell more than 5%, while the S&P 500 dropped almost 6% in the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.
Saudi Arabia's stock exchange - which trades on Sundays - ended nearly 7% lower, its biggest daily loss since the pandemic, state-owned media said.
US banking giant JP Morgan has predicted a 60% chance of a US and global recession following Trump's tariffs announcement.
Elsewhere, Indonesia and Taiwan have said over the weekend that they will not impose retaliatory tariffs after the US announced a 32% levy on imports from both countries.
Vietnam's leader, To Lam, has asked Trump to delay a 46% duty on Vietnamese exports to the US by "at least 45 days", according to a letter seen by news agency AFP and the New York Times.
However, China announced on Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on all US imports, beginning on Thursday 10 April.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned on Saturday that "the world as we knew it has gone".
Starmer said the UK government would keep pushing for an economic deal with the US that avoided some of the tariffs.
A Downing Street spokesman added Starmer and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed in a phone call that "an all-out trade war is in no-one's interest".
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump for trade talks in Washington DC.
Netanyahu, speaking to reporters as he boarded a plane-bound for the US, said he would be "the first international leader that is meeting with Trump" since the new tariffs were introduced.
He said this showed their "personal connection and the connection between our countries that is so essential in this time".
Anti-Trump protests were held in cities across the US over the weekend, in the largest nationwide show of opposition since the president took office in January.
Hundreds of thousands of people turned out in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, among other cities, with protesters citing grievances with Trump's agenda ranging from social to economic issues.
