SHENZHEN / WASHINGTON: The White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold the first three-way meeting between the leaders of their countries. It will take place at a summit in Shenzhen next week.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the meeting will be held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Moscow and Beijing have not yet commented on the planned meeting.
Nuclear weapons at the centre of the agenda
The White House said Trump plans to raise a possible reduction in global nuclear weapons stockpiles. Wales said Trump considers nuclear proliferation very dangerous.
The last nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia expired in February, while China has been rapidly expanding its own arsenal. A US official said the meeting should be seen as a starting point rather than an occasion for a concrete agreement.
Schedule and other talks
Trump is due to arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday for the two-day summit of APEC’s 21 member economies. AFP reported that the trilateral talks are set for Thursday. Officials said Trump is not scheduled to hold a separate one-on-one meeting with Putin. He is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Xi in Shenzhen.
Trump leaves Washington on Monday for the Philippines, where he will attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting before travelling to China. Elon Musk will accompany him on the trip but will not take part in the meeting with Xi and Putin, officials said.
US officials said Trump is also expected to raise the Iran war but not Russia’s war in Ukraine. The meeting comes as US-mediated talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations resumed in Abu Dhabi this week, for the first time in more than eight months.
Background
The Shenzhen talks will be Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin since their summit in Alaska in August 2025. Xi visited Trump at the White House in September, and Putin travelled to Beijing for talks with the Chinese leader in May.
Further details of the meeting are expected to be confirmed by the White House, Moscow and Beijing in the coming days.
