Talks Under Way on Possible Trump-Xi-Putin Meeting at Shenzhen Summit
Officials in Beijing and Moscow say they are working to arrange a possible three-way meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting is pencilled in for November 18-19, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, a regional forum of economies, in Shenzhen, China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China is in communication with relevant parties about a meeting between the three heads of state. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said work is under way to coordinate the meeting and that he hoped it would be finalised in the coming days. Al Jazeera reported both statements.
China confirmed on November 4 that it was in talks over a possible Trump-Xi-Putin meeting, the first time Beijing had said so publicly. The Kremlin has described the gathering in Shenzhen as the informal APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and Xi had invited Putin to take part in the leaders' meeting.
Trump has said he is open to three-way talks with Xi and Putin focused on nuclear weapons. The planned trip to Shenzhen would be his second visit to China in 2026. The three leaders have each met the others separately, but they have never held formal talks together.
The idea has a connection to the war in Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 19 that Putin had proposed meeting Trump and Xi in November to discuss ending the conflict. Days later, according to a Kremlin account, Putin told U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff that Russia was in principle ready to resume trilateral talks around November 10. On October 30, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met Xi in Beijing and raised the idea of discussing Ukraine.
Trump and Xi would have another opportunity to meet later in the year. The Group of 20 (G20), a forum of major economies, is scheduled to hold its summit in Miami in December.
