The White House says US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first three-way meeting in Shenzhen on Thursday, 19 November, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The Associated Press reported that the White House confirmed the planned gathering on Friday. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales separately told reporters that the meeting would take place on the sidelines of APEC and that Trump intended to discuss reducing nuclear weapons.
Meeting planned during APEC summit
China’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Xi will chair the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November and will hold meetings with foreign leaders on the sidelines.
The Chinese ministry’s published announcement did not, however, identify a final three-way meeting with Trump and Putin. Beijing had previously said it was communicating with the relevant parties about a possible trilateral summit.
The Kremlin had also previously described such a meeting as possible while officials discussed its format and agenda. At the time of writing, BaretaNews had not found a matching final public announcement from either Beijing or Moscow confirming the White House’s timetable.
Nuclear weapons and Iran on agenda
According to the White House account, Trump wants the three leaders to discuss the reduction of nuclear arsenals. The meeting is also expected to address the war involving the United States and Iran.
The gathering would take place nine months after the New START treaty between Washington and Moscow expired. Its end removed the last binding limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals, increasing pressure for a new framework.
China possesses a substantially smaller nuclear stockpile than either the United States or Russia and has previously shown little interest in joining a three-way arms-control agreement on equal terms.
Expectations remain cautious
The planned summit is diplomatically significant because no serving leaders of the United States, China and Russia have previously held a formal three-way meeting of this kind.
However, confirmation of the meeting remains asymmetric: Washington has announced it as scheduled, while public statements from Beijing and Moscow have so far been more cautious.
This is a developing report. BaretaNews will update it if China or Russia issues a final confirmation, or if the schedule or agenda changes.
