U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to hold a historic trilateral meeting in Shenzhen on 19 November. The White House says the talks will focus on nuclear arms reductions, with Iran also on the agenda.
The leaders of the United States, Russia and China are preparing for a first-of-its-kind joint meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales confirmed the plans on Friday, saying Trump would use the meeting to address global nuclear weapons reductions.
“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,” Wales told reporters.
Trump is expected to arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday and attend the two-day summit. He is also scheduled to hold separate bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday, marking their fourth meeting since Trump 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.
Neither Moscow nor Beijing has officially confirmed the trilateral meeting.
The proposed discussions come after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Washington and Moscow expired in February, leaving the world's two largest nuclear arsenals without a major bilateral arms control agreement.
The United Nations has called for a new framework, while Trump has expressed interest in pursuing a broader agreement that would also involve China.
Beijing, however, has repeatedly rejected U.S. efforts to bring it into nuclear arms reduction negotiations, arguing that Washington and Moscow should address their significantly larger arsenals first.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia holds the largest stockpile of stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China.
A senior Trump administration official acknowledged that the upcoming discussions were unlikely to produce an immediate breakthrough.
“We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement,” the official said.
“This is a difficult topic for China to address, but we do think it's time for China to sort of step up, you know, to the adults' table, if you will, and have adult conversations about adult things.”
The official added: “This is the beginning of hopefully a conversation that can be productive going forward.”
The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is also expected to be raised during the trilateral talks, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
However, Russia's war in Ukraine is not expected to feature in the discussions, despite the ongoing conflict and Beijing's close economic relationship with Moscow.
“We've had many meetings recently with the Russians, but China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn't seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there,” the official explained.
Trump is also not expected to hold a separate one-on-one meeting with Putin during his visit.
The U.S. president's trip will begin on Monday and include a stop in the Philippines for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit before he travels to China.
The planned trilateral meeting comes amid evolving relations between Washington, Moscow and Beijing.
China has maintained close trade ties with Russia since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while recent U.S. decisions involving Russian energy imports and sanctions have raised concerns among European allies.
Meanwhile, Trump and Xi have sought to strengthen diplomatic engagement through meetings in Beijing and Washington, although major differences remain over trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan.
Iran is another area of disagreement, with China remaining Tehran's largest trading partner and its biggest oil buyer.
Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would participate in bilateral meetings during the APEC summit but made no mention of the proposed three-way talks.
Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were “signals confirming readiness” for discussions at the summit.
If it proceeds as announced, the Shenzhen meeting will bring together the leaders of the world's three largest nuclear powers for direct discussions on arms control and other major international issues.
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