WASHINGTON, November 14 (Aalimi Nation) – The White House said that US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to hold a three-way meeting in China next week, which would be the first summit of its kind among the three leaders.
Trilateral summit plans in Shenzhen
According to the White House, the meeting is planned on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen. White House assistant press secretary Olivia Wales said Trump would conclude his visit to China with the trilateral meeting.
Trump is due to arrive late on Wednesday and to hold separate talks with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting since he returned to office in 2025. Before travelling to China, he is scheduled to attend a regional summit in the Philippines on Tuesday. No exact date or time has been announced for the three-way session.
Nuclear arms control at the centre
The administration has framed the meeting around nuclear weapons. "The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world," Wales said, adding that Trump considers nuclear proliferation very dangerous.
The talks come after the New START treaty, the last major arms control pact between the United States and Russia, lapsed in February. Trump declined a Russian proposal to extend it by a year and has called for a "new, improved and modernized" agreement that also includes China. That leaves the two countries with the world's largest arsenals without agreed limits for the first time in more than five decades. Beijing has earlier called it neither fair nor reasonable to ask China to join three-way disarmament talks at this stage.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington does not expect any agreement to come out of the meeting. The official also said Trump intends to raise the Iran conflict, while Russia's war in Ukraine is not expected to be on the agenda.
Reaction from Moscow and Beijing
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the plan. "It's clear that a meeting between the leaders of countries such as Russia, China and the United States is extremely significant," he said. He dismissed comparisons some commentators have drawn with the 1945 Yalta Conference, saying any understandings reached in Shenzhen could not be imposed on other countries.
Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would hold bilateral talks on the summit's sidelines, citing a foreign ministry spokesperson, but did not mention a three-way meeting. Beijing said earlier this month that it was in active communication with Washington and Moscow about such a meeting. China had not publicly confirmed the trilateral format.
What remains unclear
Neither Beijing nor Moscow has announced a date or agenda for the three-way session, and it is not clear whether it will take the form the White House described. Analysts quoted in international media have said that drawing China and Russia into a new nuclear framework could face major obstacles and take years to negotiate.
