Trump to hold unprecedented trilateral meeting with Xi and Putin at APEC in Shenzhen

The White House announced that President Donald J. Trump will hold a three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the APEC leaders’ summit in Shenzhen on November 18-19. Officials said nuclear arms control will be a central topic, alongside discussions of regional conflicts such as the war in Ukraine and tensions involving Iran.

Trump told reporters that the meeting will cover "a lot of things, including denuclearisation." He has previously advocated for a trilateral nuclear arms control framework involving the United States, Russia and China, arguing that large nuclear stockpiles are financially burdensome and strategically unnecessary.

Analysts note that while the United States and Russia each possess more than 5,000 nuclear warheads, China’s arsenal is considerably smaller and it has shown limited interest in formal arms-reduction talks with the other two powers.

The summit follows recent bilateral contacts: Trump hosted Xi at the White House in September and met Putin in Alaska in August, where they discussed efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have also met Putin multiple times this year to advance negotiations on the conflict.

The meeting occurs amid ongoing U.S.-China tensions over trade, technology and artificial-intelligence restrictions, with both Beijing and Moscow confirming that discussions about the trilateral gathering are underway.