US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold an unprecedented trilateral meeting on the sidelines of a major summit in China next week.
The White House confirmed that the three leaders would meet during Trump’s visit to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump intended to discuss several issues, including reducing nuclear weapons around the world, which he considers a serious threat due to the dangers of proliferation.
Iran could also feature in the discussions between the leaders of the world’s three major nuclear powers, although Ukraine is not expected to be on the agenda.
However, no formal agreement is anticipated from the meeting, an unnamed senior US official told news agencies AP and Reuters.
Trump is scheduled to arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday for the two-day gathering involving 21 APEC member economies. He will also hold bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday, marking their fourth meeting since Trump returned to office in 2025.
Wales said Trump would conclude his China visit with a meeting involving the leaders of the United States, China and Russia.
She added that Trump’s wider Asian trip, which includes attending an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Philippines on Tuesday, aims to deliver significant gains for Americans and advance US interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
Xi has separately hosted Putin and Trump in Beijing just days apart earlier this year, while Trump welcomed the Chinese leader to Washington in September.
Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit, citing a Foreign Ministry spokesman. However, it did not mention any plans for a three-way meeting.
Earlier this month, Russian state news agency Tass reported that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had indicated there were “signals confirming readiness” for such discussions during the summit.
