US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a trilateral summit on Thursday in Shenzhen on the sidelines of the APEC meeting.
The Kremlin confirmed the meeting on Saturday. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced an agreement for the three leaders to meet in the Chinese city on November 19 . The White House had previously announced the gathering . It will take place during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit on November 18 and 19 . The three leaders have never met in a group before .
Nuclear arms control will be a central topic. The New START treaty between Washington and Moscow expired in February 2026 . It had been the last major bilateral agreement limiting strategic nuclear forces. Trump has expressed interest in a broader arrangement involving China. But Beijing has resisted trilateral negotiations . China argues that the US and Russia should first make further reductions given their larger arsenals.
US officials said Trump intends to raise the US-Israeli war involving Iran . Ukraine is not expected to be a principal subject . Washington maintains a separate diplomatic track with Kyiv and Moscow. Officials said China is not part of those negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the meeting could lead to a "division of spheres of influence" similar to the 1945 Yalta conference . Japan has also expressed concern that the summit could become a "Yalta moment" . Xiaoyu Pu, an associate professor at the University of Nevada, said the meeting "might be more symbolic than substantive, although symbolism itself matters in great-power diplomacy" .
Trump plans a one-on-one meeting with Xi but not with Putin, according to AFP . Elon Musk will accompany the US president to Shenzhen. He will not participate in either the bilateral or trilateral talks. The Nvidia scandal involving former CEO Jensen Huang will not be discussed during the Trump-Xi meeting.
A senior US official told reporters that Washington does not expect any agreement to emerge from the talks . The administration views the discussion as an opportunity to begin engagement rather than conclude a comprehensive nuclear deal. The summit comes two weeks after Trump lost control of both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections .
