The White House has announced that the leaders of the United States, China and Russia will hold a three-way meeting next week, an encounter with no precedent. A White House assistant press secretary confirmed the plan, saying Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will meet on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, a Chinese city known as a technology hub.
The discussions come nine months after the last nuclear arms treaty between Washington and Moscow ran out. For the first time in more than half a century, the two countries holding the largest atomic arsenals are no longer bound by any limits.
Nuclear stockpiles at the centre of the agenda
Trump has described the meeting as an opportunity for all three nations to strike an agreement on nuclear stockpiles. The New START treaty lapsed in February, after Trump turned down Russia’s offer to extend it by a year. He instead called for a “new, improved and modernized” deal that would also bring China on board.
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According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia has the most nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and then China.
Low expectations and Yalta comparisons
Expectations are modest. A senior Trump administration official told a news agency that the team did not anticipate reaching any kind of agreement, and described the gathering as the beginning of a dialogue.
Some observers have compared the summit to the 1945 Yalta Conference, where the leaders of the US, Britain and the Soviet Union shaped the post-war order. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected that parallel, saying any deals struck in Shenzhen could not be imposed on others. He nevertheless called the meeting “extremely significant”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed concern that the talks could be used to discuss a deal for Ukraine without Kyiv being involved.
Agenda, travel plans and wider ties
A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump intends to raise the Iran war with Xi and Putin but will avoid discussing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Elon Musk will travel with Trump to China but will not attend the meeting, the official added. Trump is also not expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the Asia trip.
Trump has pursued closer relations with both Xi and Putin, despite a brief trade war with China last year and Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine, where Washington is seeking to broker a settlement.
