Summit in China: White House announces Trump's three-way meeting with Xi and Putin

A three-way meeting at the highest level between the USA, China and Russia is looming. What will be discussed at the historic meeting?

Such a meeting is historic. (Archive images) Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/Mihail Metzel/Nhac Nguyen/POOL AFP/AP/dpa

Washington. US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin will meet in China next week for a three-way meeting, according to the White House. Trump also wanted to talk about a possible reduction in global nuclear weapons stocks, it was said from government headquarters in Washington.

The three-way diplomatic meeting in this composition is a historic one. So far there have only been bilateral talks between the nuclear powers. Trump, Putin and Xi were present at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan in 2019. However, there were only bilateral meetings.

Is it about a new nuclear disarmament treaty?

A US official tempered expectations that the nuclear weapons talk would produce concrete results or an agreement. Rather, this should be viewed as an introduction.

In the past, Trump had repeatedly brought up a new disarmament treaty. The New Start treaty concluded between Russia and the USA in 2010 expired this year. New Start limited the number of strategic nuclear warheads and the number of operational launchers.

When the contract expired in February, Trump suggested a new contract that would extend far into the future. He had also called for China to be included in nuclear disarmament treaties. Trump recently said that the USA was in talks with Russia and China on nuclear disarmament.

At the end of 2025, Trump caused a stir around the world when he announced US nuclear weapons tests - it later turned out that there would be no nuclear explosions. Trump had said that the US did not want to remain the only country that did not test. During this period, Putin had instructed his government to examine the advisability of possible nuclear weapons tests.

How much space will the Ukraine war take up?

Trump, Putin and Xi are meeting in the context of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic summit being held in Shenzhen on Wednesday and Thursday. Xi last visited Trump in the White House in September. The US President will meet Russian President Putin in person for the first time since the two met at a two-party summit in Alaska in the summer of 2025. Putin last traveled to Beijing to visit Xi in May. Days before, Xi had received Trump there.

Trump and Putin are meeting in China after diplomatic talks about a way out of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. In the capital of the United Arab Emirates, teams from Russia and Ukraine negotiated with each other under US mediation for the first time in more than eight months.

Trump has long wanted to encourage Xi to work with the USA to end the conflict, which has been going on since February 2022. China is an important trading partner of Russia. Oil imports from Russia pour a lot of money into Moscow's war chest. Beijing is seen as an important source of support for Moscow on the international stage.