The White House confirmed on Friday that President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to hold a historic trilateral meeting late next week. The gathering will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen, China.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters that the three leaders will convene as Trump concludes his visit to the southern Chinese city. The meeting marks a significant diplomatic engagement between the world’s three largest nuclear powers, though officials cautioned that no formal agreement is expected to result from the talks.
Nuclear Arms and Regional Security
Wales stated that President Trump has made it clear he intends to discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons globally. She noted that the president believes the proliferation of such weapons is very dangerous. While the primary focus appears to be on nuclear arms control, it is understood that the situation in Iran may also be discussed during the session. Ukraine, however, is not expected to be a topic of conversation.
The context for these discussions is tense. A major nuclear weapons control treaty between the United States and Russia expired in February. This expiration left the world’s largest nuclear arsenals without major guardrails, effectively ending the arms control cooperation that helped resolve Cold War tensions. The United Nations has urged both sides to agree on a new framework without delay.
Trump has previously suggested he could replace the expired deal with a better agreement that includes China, which has been expanding its nuclear arsenal. However, former senior US officials and analysts told the BBC that seeking cooperation from both Beijing and Moscow could present major hurdles and take years to achieve.
Diplomatic History and Current Tensions
While this trilateral meeting may be a first of its kind in this format, the leaders have interacted frequently in bilateral settings. Trump and Xi have met four times since Trump returned to office in 2025. Their most recent bilateral talks occurred in Washington in September. Earlier this year, Xi hosted both Putin and Trump in Beijing just days apart.
Despite these frequent interactions, significant progress on key issues such as trade, the race for artificial intelligence dominance, and Taiwan has been limited. Relations between Beijing and Moscow have deepened since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. China has become a crucial trading partner for Moscow, which remains isolated and subject to Western sanctions.
European concern has heightened recently due to a controversial US deal to import Russian diesel and the suspension of sanctions targeting major buyers of Moscow’s oil and gas, including China. Meanwhile, the war in Iran remains a sticking point in US-China relations, with Beijing being the largest buyer of Tehran’s oil and its biggest trade partner.
Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would participate in bilateral talks at the Apec summit but did not mention the trilateral meeting. Russian state news agency Tass reported earlier this month that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had indicated there were signals confirming readiness for such talks.
Trump will arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday for the two-day summit involving 21 member states. His trip also includes attending an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in the Philippines on Tuesday. Wales described the overall trip as an effort to secure historic wins for the American people and advance US interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
Source: BBC
