Trump, Xi and Putin to hold first three-way summit in China amid nuclear arms talks

The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will meet next week on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen. The gathering would be the first known three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, China and Russia. It comes as Washington says Mr Trump wants to discuss nuclear stockpiles and the war in Iran.

A senior Trump administration official said expectations for the meeting are low and described it as the start of a conversation rather than a venue for a deal. The official said the talks are not expected to produce any immediate agreement. The White House also said Mr Trump will not use the trilateral format to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, which it said is being handled through separate channels.

The timing is significant because the last US-Russia nuclear arms treaty expired in February, leaving the two countries with the largest atomic arsenals without formal caps for the first time in more than five decades. Mr Trump has said he wants a new, improved and modernised agreement that would also include China. Russia has the largest number of nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and then China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The planned meeting has drawn comparisons with the 1945 Yalta Conference, although the Kremlin has rejected that parallel. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any agreements reached in Shenzhen could not be imposed on others, while still calling the meeting extremely significant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced concern that the talks could become a platform for discussion of a Ukraine deal without Kyiv's involvement.

The White House said Mr Trump will also discuss the Iran war with Mr Xi and Mr Putin. A senior US official said Elon Musk will travel with Mr Trump to China but will not attend the meeting. The same official said Mr Trump is not expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the Asia trip.

The separate bilateral meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Xi is also expected to take place during the visit. What remains unclear is whether the three leaders will issue any joint statement or set a timetable for further talks. It is also not known whether the meeting will lead to any movement on nuclear arms limits or wider security issues.

Attention will now turn to whether the Shenzhen encounter becomes a starting point for negotiations or remains a symbolic diplomatic exchange.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are due to hold the first known three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China next week in Shenzhen, according to the White House. The talks are set to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city. The meeting is being presented as a significant diplomatic moment because it brings together the heads of three major powers in one session for the first time.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the president intends to discuss reducing nuclear weapons, describing proliferation as dangerous. A senior US official also said Mr Trump plans to raise Iran during the trilateral meeting. The same official said Russia's war in Ukraine is not expected to be discussed in that format, because Washington has a separate track of talks with Kyiv and Moscow.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration continues separate diplomatic efforts over Ukraine, while also managing wider tensions with both Moscow and Beijing. The officials said China is not part of the Ukraine channel, which they said made it inappropriate to include that war in the trilateral discussion. Mr Trump is also scheduled to hold a working lunch and a separate meeting with Mr Xi on Thursday, which would be their fourth meeting since he returned to office last year.

The agenda points to the strategic weight of the encounter. Nuclear arms reduction has long been one of the most sensitive issues in US-Russia relations, while Iran remains a central foreign policy concern for Washington. A direct meeting involving the leaders of the US, Russia and China could also carry broader implications for global security, given the three countries' roles in nuclear policy, sanctions diplomacy and international conflict management.

The White House said Elon Musk will travel with Mr Trump to China but will not take part in the meeting. Officials also said there are no plans to discuss export controls on sensitive chip technology in the talks with Mr Xi. They added that a separate issue involving Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is not expected to come up either, despite recent scrutiny around his resignation over an alleged affair with a Chinese spy.

What remains unclear is whether the trilateral meeting will produce any concrete agreement or statement. The White House has not said how long the session will last or whether any follow-up talks are planned. Attention will now turn to whether the leaders use the Shenzhen meeting to signal progress on nuclear arms reduction or to set out any shared position on Iran.

#DonaldTrump #XiJinping #VladimirPutin #Shenzhen #APEC #nucleararms #Iranwar #WhiteHouse