US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to meet in China next week. Al Jazeera reported that it will be the first trilateral meeting of the three leaders. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said they would meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the southern city of Shenzhen.
Wales said Trump would discuss reducing the world's nuclear weapons. She said Trump sees their spread as "very dangerous". According to the reports, Iran may also come up, but Ukraine will not. A senior US official told Reuters that "we do not expect to get to any kind of agreement". The official called the meeting the start of a conversation.
Trump will arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday for the two-day summit of 21 member states. Al Jazeera said the summit runs November 18-19. Trump will hold separate talks with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting since he returned to office in 2025. Before China, he will attend an Asean summit in the Philippines. Wales said the trip would "secure historic wins to the American people".
The reports said Moscow and Beijing had not commented on the trilateral meeting. Chinese state media reported only that Xi would hold "bilateral" talks at Apec. Earlier this month, Russia's Tass news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying there were "signals confirming readiness" for such talks. Hiiraan Online reported that Peskov rejected comparisons with the 1945 Yalta Conference. He still called the meeting "extremely significant".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he fears the meeting could be used to discuss a Ukraine deal behind Kyiv's back. A US official said China is not part of the Ukraine peace track, so the topic does not belong at this meeting. China has said the Ukraine war is a European issue.
The talks follow the end of New START, the US-Russia nuclear treaty that lapsed in February. Trump rejected Russia's offer to extend it. He demanded instead a "new, improved and modernised" deal that includes China. Last month, China's Foreign Ministry said it would be "neither fair, reasonable nor realistic" to ask China to join trilateral disarmament talks at this stage.
Analysts expect little from the meeting. Simon Mabon of Lancaster University told Al Jazeera it would be "more performative". He said the three leaders cannot end the conflicts in Iran or Ukraine. Al Jazeera also reported that the Strait of Hormuz has been closed for more than 100 days. It shut after the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, and oil and gas prices remain volatile.