White House: Trump, Putin and Xi to Meet in China Next Week
President Donald Trump will meet jointly next week with China’s leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House said, marking a first-ever trilateral sit-down between the leaders of the three nations.
The gathering will take place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, according to reporting by CNN. Trump aims to discuss reducing nuclear arsenals during the Thursday talks and is also set to bring up his war in Iran, Arab News reported.
“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,” Olivia Wales, a White House spokesman, told reporters.
The last bilateral nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia expired in February. China has concurrently been expanding its nuclear arsenal, pushing the administration to seek a broader framework.
When the New START treaty expired, Trump rejected a Russian proposal to extend the bilateral pact for another year, demanding instead a modernized agreement that includes China, Arab News reported.
US officials have downplayed expectations for an immediate breakthrough in Shenzhen. “We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement,” a senior US official said, according to CNN. “I would characterize this as the entry point, the first conversation, certainly at the leader level, between these countries.”
Alongside nuclear reduction, officials confirmed that the leaders plan to address the conflict in Iran. However, Washington does not intend to place Russia’s war in Ukraine on the agenda during the trilateral session, maintaining that Ukraine discussions belong on a separate diplomatic track involving Kyiv and Moscow, Arab News reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has raised public alarms that the Shenzhen meeting could resemble a modern-day Yalta Conference, evoking fears of major powers carving up spheres of influence without regional participation, Dawn reported. China has historically opposed such clandestine divisions of sovereignty.
Prior to the summit, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio spoke with Director of the Office of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at China’s request, the State Department said. The two officials agreed on the importance of meaningful leader-level conversations regarding peace and denuclearization ahead of the meetings.
Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk is expected to accompany Trump on the trip to China, though he is not scheduled to participate in the trilateral session, CNN reported. Beijing and Moscow had not officially confirmed their formal participation in the trilateral summit as of Friday.