Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin plan to meet on Thursday 19 November. The meeting will be on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen. The White House announced this on Friday evening Washington time. It would be the first time the leaders of the United States, China and Russia have held a three-way meeting. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters that "President Trump will conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting".
The US president intends to press for reductions in nuclear arsenals. He also plans to raise the war in Iran. Senior US officials played down any prospect of a breakthrough. "We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement," one official told Reuters. Neither Beijing nor Moscow had formally confirmed the format by the time of the announcement. The meeting comes nine months after the last treaty limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear forces expired.
What Washington wants from the meeting
Ms Wales said: "The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world." She said Mr Trump regards the spread of such weapons as "very dangerous", according to CNN and the Anadolu news agency.
At a briefing for reporters on Friday evening, a senior administration official called the meeting the start of a process, not a negotiation. "I would characterize this as the entry point, the first conversation," the official said, according to Anadolu. The official said China's arsenal was growing faster than any other country's. The official added that Beijing should "step up to the adult table" on arms control.
Iran will also be raised. "I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin," a senior US official said, according to AFP. China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, the BBC noted. Russia has deepened its military, intelligence and diplomatic ties with Tehran, NBC News reported.
Ukraine will not be on the table. Washington has a separate track of talks with Kyiv and Moscow. An official told AFP: "China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn't seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there."
The end of New START
The nuclear agenda follows the expiry in February 2026 of New START. This 2010 treaty capped deployed US and Russian strategic warheads. The two countries with the largest arsenals now have no limits on them for the first time in more than 50 years, Al Jazeera reported. Mr Trump turned down a Russian offer to extend the treaty by a year. He called instead for a "new, improved and modernized" agreement that would include China.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US and Russia together held around 83 per cent of the world's stockpiled nuclear warheads in January 2026. SIPRI estimates that China has around 620 warheads. It states that China "is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country". Russia holds the most warheads, followed by the US.
Beijing has long resisted joining arms control talks with the two larger powers. In October, China's foreign ministry said it would be "neither fair, reasonable nor realistic" to ask it to take part in trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage, Al Jazeera reported. That position makes the official US expectation of no agreement unsurprising.
Signals from Moscow and Beijing
The meeting has been in preparation for several weeks. Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on 25 October that Moscow, Beijing and Washington were ready in principle to hold it, according to the Kyiv Post. On 4 November, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China "is maintaining communication with relevant parties regarding a potential meeting among Chinese, Russian and US leaders", the Kyiv Post reported.
After the White House announcement, Chinese state media reported that Mr Xi would hold "bilateral" talks at APEC. They did not mention a trilateral session, the BBC reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cited "signals confirming readiness" for the talks, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Planning for the meeting has drawn comparisons with the 1945 Yalta conference. There, the US, Britain and the Soviet Union shaped the post-war order. Mr Peskov rejected the comparison. He said that "a meeting between the leaders of countries such as Russia, China and the United States is extremely significant". But he added that any agreements reached in Shenzhen could not be imposed on others, according to NBC News and Al Jazeera.
Analysts quoted by Al Jazeera suggest the Kremlin stands to gain most from the occasion itself. Alexander Bratersky, a Moscow-based political analyst, said a seat at the table would make Mr Putin "first among equals". He said Mr Putin "will be able to sell it at home". Inderjeet Parmar, professor of international politics at City St George's, University of London, said a three-way meeting would mark "a clear break from the post-1945 pattern". He also said fears of a formal "G3" were overstated. The three capitals' interests diverge sharply on Ukraine, Taiwan, technology and trade, he said.
Concern in Kyiv and Europe
Ukraine has made clear its unease. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is concerned the meeting could be used to discuss a settlement of the war without Kyiv's involvement. Foreign minister Andrii Sybiha argued earlier this month that talks among Ukraine, the US and Russia could help end the fighting. But "a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China and the US would have the opposite effect", he said. He added: "Russia is not a global power; it is a global problem."
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met Mr Xi in Beijing on 30 October. He told the broadcaster ARD that the Chinese leader had described the war as a European conflict in which "Europeans must sit at the table".
The announcement also comes amid European unease over Washington's approach to Moscow. Last month the US agreed a deal to import Russian diesel. It also suspended sanctions on major buyers of Russian oil and gas, including China, the BBC reported.
Trump's itinerary and what comes next
Mr Trump leaves Washington on Monday 16 November for Manila. There he is due to attend an ASEAN summit and hold talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He is expected to sign a trade agreement with Thailand. He is scheduled to arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday 18 November for the two-day gathering of APEC's 21 member economies.
On Thursday afternoon he will hold a bilateral meeting and working lunch with Mr Xi. The three-way session follows, and officials say it will be the final event of the trip. No separate one-to-one meeting with Mr Putin is planned, and no meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is expected. A second senior official described the Trump–Xi talks as "an implementation check-in, a stocktaking" of the two countries' trade agreement, according to Anadolu. Elon Musk will travel with the president for parts of the China visit but will not attend the official meetings.
US officials have presented Thursday's meeting as a first conversation, not a negotiation. In the short term, the main questions are whether Beijing and Moscow formally confirm the format and how each side describes the outcome afterwards. Mr Bratersky told Al Jazeera that it should become clear within about a month whether anything comes of the meeting. He suggested that the G20 summit in Miami in December could provide an opportunity for follow-up.
Featured image: Shenzhen West at dust2021 by Charlie fong, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
