Trump, Xi and Putin plan to meet next week on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, the White House confirmed. The three leaders will hold the first trilateral meeting of its kind.
Trump intends to discuss Iran and nuclear arms control. The talks arrive nine months after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Washington and Moscow expired in February, leaving the US and Russia without caps on atomic arsenals for the first time in over 50 years. Trump rejected Russia's proposal to extend that treaty and instead demanded a "new, improved and modernized" deal that includes China.
Expectations for agreement are low. A senior Trump administration official told Reuters the meeting marks the start of a conversation, with no expectation of reaching any kind of agreement. Russia holds the most nuclear warheads, followed by the US, then China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Trump plans to discuss the Iran war but will avoid discussing Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a senior US official. Elon Musk will travel with Trump to China but will not attend the meeting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the meeting "extremely significant" but dismissed comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference, saying any agreements reached in Shenzhen cannot be imposed on others. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed concern the meeting could become a platform to discuss a Ukraine deal without Kyiv's involvement.