Trump to meet Xi and Putin in China, White House says

US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shenzhen on Thursday, 19 November, the White House says. It would be the first three-way meeting of the leaders of the three countries.

The talks are planned on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. China’s foreign ministry says Xi will chair the summit, which takes place on 18 and 19 November.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters that Trump would discuss reducing nuclear weapons, AFP reported. A senior US official, speaking anonymously, said Trump also intended to raise Iran, but was not expected to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The official said Washington was pursuing a separate track of negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow, in which China was not involved. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed concern that the three-way meeting could be used to discuss a Ukraine deal without Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed comparisons with the 1945 Yalta conference, saying any agreements in Shenzhen could not be imposed on others.

The US official said no agreements were expected at the meeting, according to the Associated Press. The last US-Russian nuclear arms treaty, New START, expired in February. AP reported that the Pentagon estimates China has more than 600 nuclear warheads, while the US and Russia each have an estimated 5,000 or more.

Trump is also due to hold a working lunch with Xi on Thursday, but is not scheduled to meet Putin separately. On 9 November, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said China was in contact with the parties about a meeting of the three presidents, but gave no details of the agenda.