Trump, Xi and Putin to Meet in China, With Iran on Agenda but Ukraine Excluded
By Staff, Agencies
US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold a rare trilateral meeting next Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] summit in Shenzhen, China, with discussions expected to focus on Iran, nuclear arms reduction and other international issues, according to the White House.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump intends to raise the issue of reducing nuclear weapons worldwide, describing nuclear proliferation as a major security concern for the US president.
“The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous,” Wales told reporters.
A senior US official also confirmed that Trump plans to discuss the ongoing war involving Iran with Xi and Putin during the trilateral talks.
According to the official, who spoke anonymously during a briefing ahead of the meeting, the three leaders are expected to address developments surrounding the conflict and its broader international implications.
However, the war in Ukraine is not expected to be included in the discussions. The official explained that Washington is pursuing a separate negotiating framework involving Russia and Ukraine, with China not directly involved in that process.
The planned meeting follows Trump’s announcement earlier this week that he expected to meet both Xi and Putin during the APEC leaders’ summit, scheduled for November 18-19 in southern China.
Speaking to reporters before departing Florida for Washington, Trump described the prospective encounter as an opportunity to discuss several major international issues, including nuclear disarmament and efforts to end the war involving Iran.
Trump had previously expressed interest in October in launching trilateral arms-control discussions with China and Russia. Beijing, however, has repeatedly resisted joining nuclear negotiations with Washington, pointing to the significant difference between the size of the American and Chinese nuclear arsenals.
Meanwhile, prospects for progress on the Ukraine conflict remain uncertain, despite Trump’s latest comments suggesting that Washington and Moscow could be approaching an agreement.
In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Trump said he believed the United States and Russia were close to reaching an agreement to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
“I believe we’re very close to making a deal,” Trump said, suggesting that any eventual agreement could leave Ukraine in a “little bit different shape,” without providing further details.
Trump also recently indicated that a broader agreement involving issues beyond Ukraine, potentially extending to Europe, could be under consideration following his meeting with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House.
“It’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, confirming the meeting while declining to disclose the details of their discussions.
The planned gathering in China would bring together the leaders of three major global powers at a time of heightened international tensions, with Iran, nuclear weapons and competing diplomatic initiatives among the issues shaping the discussions.
