Trump, Xi and Putin to hold first-ever three-way summit in Shenzhen next week
The White House confirmed on Friday that Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China. It is set for Thursday in Shenzhen, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump will raise the reduction of nuclear weapons, which he considers a dangerous proliferation risk. A senior US official added that Trump also intends to discuss Iran in the trilateral format.
Ukraine, by contrast, is not expected to be on the agenda. The official said Washington runs a "whole other track" of negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow, following recent contacts between US envoys and both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Because China is not part of that track, the official said, it would not be appropriate to hold the Ukraine discussion there.
Zelensky has warned that the meeting could amount to a Yalta-like "redistribution of spheres of influence". The comparison refers to the 1945 summit where Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin set out the post-war settlement and new territorial boundaries in Europe.
Trump will also hold a bilateral working lunch and meeting with Xi on Thursday, their fourth since his return to power last year, but no separate one-on-one with Putin is planned. US officials said neither Jensen Huang's resignation from Nvidia over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy nor chip export controls will figure in the talks, calling the latter a national security matter that is not negotiated. Elon Musk will travel with Trump but will not take part in the Xi–Putin meeting. Trump leaves Washington on Monday and first attends an ASEAN summit in the Philippines on Tuesday.
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