US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first three-way meeting on Thursday (Nov 19) on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen, China, the White House says.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters on Friday (Nov 13, US time) that the president had made clear he would discuss reducing the world’s nuclear weapons, among other topics.
A senior US official said Trump also intended to raise the US war with Iran with the two leaders, but that Russia’s war in Ukraine would not be discussed, as Washington is handling it on a separate track with Kyiv and Moscow that China is not part of. US export controls on advanced chips, which are at the centre of a Malaysian police probe into the alleged diversion of Nvidia AI chips, are also not on the agenda, the official said.
The talks will bring together the leaders of the world’s biggest nuclear powers in a format never used before. The New START arms control treaty between the US and Russia expired in February, and Trump, who turned down Moscow’s call to extend it, wants a new, modernised agreement that also covers China. US officials have described the Shenzhen meeting as the start of a conversation on nuclear disarmament, and no agreements are expected to be announced.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the meeting extremely significant, but said any agreements reached in Shenzhen could not be imposed on other countries.
Trump will also hold a working lunch and a bilateral meeting with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting since he returned to the White House. He is due to leave Washington on Monday and stop in the Philippines on Tuesday for the Asean summit in Manila before travelling on to Shenzhen.
China’s Foreign Ministry announced on Nov 13 that Xi would attend the 33rd Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen on Nov 18 and 19, alongside the Apec CEO Summit in the city on Nov 17 and 18.
Apec groups 21 economies around the Pacific Rim, including Malaysia, China, Russia and the US. Analysts quoted by international media expect the three-way talks to be more symbolic than substantive, and say they could overshadow the summit itself.