Trump, Xi and Putin to Hold First Trilateral Meeting in Shenzhen on Nov. 19
The leaders will meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit to discuss nuclear reductions and the Iran war, but not Ukraine, U.S. officials say.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold the first three-way meeting of the three leaders on Nov. 19, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, the White House said.
The gathering, confirmed by White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales and subsequently by the Kremlin, would be the first trilateral sit-down among the three heads of state. Trump is scheduled to hold a separate bilateral working lunch and meeting with Xi the same day — their fourth meeting since he returned to office.
"The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous," Wales told reporters.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump also intends to raise the war with Iran during the trilateral talks. Washington has a "whole other track" of negotiations with Moscow and Kyiv aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine, the official said, adding: "China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn't seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there."
The last nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia, New START, expired in February, lifting limits on the world's two largest arsenals for the first time in more than five decades. Trump declined a Russian request to extend it for a year and has instead called for what he described as a new, improved and modernized agreement that would include China. Pentagon estimates put China's arsenal at more than 600 warheads, against more than 5,000 each for the United States and Russia, and Beijing has shown little interest in joining a pact.
No agreements are expected to be announced in Shenzhen. Trump is not expected to raise Russia's war in Ukraine, and U.S. officials said export controls on advanced semiconductor technology — central to a recent scandal involving Nvidia — would not be discussed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has raised concerns that the meeting could be used to negotiate a Ukraine settlement without Kyiv's involvement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pushed back on comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference, saying any agreements reached in Shenzhen could not be imposed on other parties.
Trump is set to leave Washington on Monday, arriving in the Philippines on Tuesday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations before traveling to Shenzhen. Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive, will accompany Trump but will not take part in the trilateral meeting, officials said.