The leaders of the United States, China and Russia will sit down together for the first time next week, when Donald Trump meets Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a summit in Shenzhen. The White House confirmed the arrangement on Friday, ending days of speculation about whether the three heads of the world’s largest nuclear powers would share a room.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters that Trump would conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting between the president of the United States, the president of the People’s Republic of China and the president of the Russian Federation. The meeting will take place during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the southern city of Shenzhen, which runs from November 18 to 19 and brings together 21 member economies. The reported venue at Xiangmi Lake in Futian District was finished over the past year; China has hosted the forum twice before, in Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014. Trump will arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday, after attending an Asean summit in the Philippines on Tuesday.
For readers, the meeting puts nuclear arms control back at the centre of US foreign policy. The New START treaty, which limited the American and Russian arsenals, expired in February, leaving the world’s two biggest nuclear powers without formal caps for the first time in decades. The White House says Trump will press for a broader agreement that also includes China, which has been expanding its own arsenal. Whatever the three leaders decide will shape military planning and defence spending well beyond next week.
What the three leaders will discuss
Wales said Trump would raise the reduction of nuclear weapons, whose proliferation the president believes is very dangerous. Iran may also come up, according to officials. Ukraine will not. The White House has ruled out the war in Ukraine as a topic, even though the collapse of New START is one of the central security issues between Washington and Moscow. Moscow has shown its own interest: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that the Kremlin had seen signs of readiness for talks at the summit.
China’s position
Beijing’s arsenal of more than 600 warheads, according to Pentagon estimates, is far smaller than the inventories held by the United States and Russia, each estimated at more than 5,000 warheads. With the American and Russian stockpiles dwarfing its own, China has shown little interest in joining a nuclear pact. A senior US official said Washington wanted China to “step up, you know, to the adults’ table, if you will, and have adult conversations about adult things.”
The UN has urged Washington and Moscow to agree on a new framework without delay. Trump has said he could replace the expired deal with a better agreement that includes China. Former senior US officials and analysts told the BBC that winning the cooperation of Beijing and Moscow could take years.
No agreement expected
The same senior official said no agreement was expected to follow the talks, describing the session as an “entry point” and “the first conversation.” Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would take part in bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Apec summit, citing a foreign ministry spokesman, but did not report on the three-way meeting. Russia’s Tass news agency carried the Kremlin’s readiness comments earlier this month.
The Apec summit is the 33rd Economic Leaders’ Meeting and the first to be held in Shenzhen, a city better known for its technology industry than for diplomatic gatherings. The 21 member economies are expected to discuss regional trade, innovation and economic growth.
Trump will also hold bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting since the US president returned to office in 2025. Xi hosted both Putin and Trump in Beijing earlier this year, while Trump welcomed the Chinese leader to Washington in September.
What stands out is the low bar the White House has set. By calling the meeting an entry point and saying no agreement is expected, officials are pointing out how far apart the three governments remain, even as they agree to sit at the same table. The gap between that framing and the historic label used in headlines is the real story.
When will Trump, Xi and Putin meet? The trilateral meeting is expected on November 19, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Shenzhen, China. Trump will arrive late on Wednesday for the two-day summit and hold bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday before the three-way session.
The meeting will be the first of its kind between the three leaders. Whether it produces anything beyond a handshake is unclear, and officials have said no agreement is expected. What is clear is that nuclear arms control, after years on the sidelines, will now be discussed directly between Washington, Beijing and Moscow. Check back for updates as the summit approaches.
