Trump, Putin and Xi Plan Historic Trilateral Meeting in China

US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are planning to hold a historic trilateral meeting in China next week, the White House has announced.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the meeting would take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, southern China, where Trump is expected to attend a two-day gathering of leaders from 21 member economies.

Wales said Trump intends to discuss several issues, including reducing the world’s nuclear weapons stockpiles, which he considers a serious threat.

Iran is also expected to feature in the discussions, although Ukraine is not currently on the agenda. Moscow and Beijing have yet to officially comment on the proposed meeting.

An unnamed senior American official told news agencies AP and Reuters that no agreement was expected to emerge from the talks.

Trump is scheduled to arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday. He will also hold bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday, marking their fourth meeting since Trump returned to the White House in 2025.

Wales confirmed that Trump would conclude his China visit with a meeting involving the three leaders. She said his wider Asian tour, which includes attending an ASEAN summit in the Philippines on Tuesday, aims to advance American interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

The planned meeting comes months after the expiration of a major nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia in February. Its expiry left the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals without major restrictions under the agreement.

The United Nations has urged both countries to negotiate a new framework. Trump has previously suggested that a replacement deal could include China, which has been expanding its nuclear arsenal. However, former US officials and analysts have warned that securing cooperation from both Beijing and Moscow could be difficult and take years.

Xi has separately hosted Putin and Trump in Beijing earlier this year, while Trump welcomed the Chinese leader to Washington in September.

China has also become an important economic partner for Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which triggered extensive Western sanctions against Russia.

Meanwhile, recent US decisions involving Russian energy imports and the suspension of sanctions targeting major buyers of Russian oil and gas, including China, have raised concerns among European governments about Washington’s approach to Moscow.

Although Trump and Xi have sought to present their relationship as improving, major disagreements remain over trade, artificial intelligence competition and Taiwan. The war in Iran has also added tension, given China’s position as a major buyer of Iranian oil and a key trading partner.

Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would participate in bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the APEC summit but did not mention the proposed three-way meeting.

Earlier this month, Russian state news agency TASS reported that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had indicated there were signs of readiness for such talks at the summit.