Trump, Putin and Xi plan historic joint meeting in China next week, White House says

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are planning to meet on the sidelines of a summit in China next week, the White House has said.

The unprecedented meeting between the leaders of the US, Russia and China will take place as Trump attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the southern city of Shenzhen, spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.

"The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous," she said.

It is understood Iran may also be discussed during the meeting of the world's biggest nuclear powers, but not Ukraine. Moscow and Beijing are yet to comment.

No agreement was expected to follow the talks, an unnamed, senior American official said, according to news agencies AP and Reuters.

Trump will arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday for the two-day summit between the 21-member states. He will also take part in bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday - their fourth meeting since the US president returned to office in 2025.

"President Trump will 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," Wales said.

She said the president's trip, which will also include attending an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in the Philippines on Tuesday, would "secure historic wins to the American people and advance America's interests in the Indo Pacific".

Xi separately hosted both Putin and Trump in Beijing just days apart earlier this year, while the US president welcomed his Chinese counterpart to Washington in September.

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 has not reported on the trilateral meeting.

Earlier this month, Russian state news agency Tass reported that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said there were "signals confirming readiness" for such talks at the summit.