Trump, Xi and Putin Plan Unprecedented Three-Way Meeting on APEC Sidelines in Shenzhen

The White House confirmed on Friday that the presidents of the United States, China and Russia plan to sit down together on Thursday, on the sidelines of next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China's technology hub. No meeting of Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin has happened before, and it would bring together the leaders of the world's largest nuclear powers. Analysts quoted in the reporting expect more symbolism than substance.

The three arrive at a tangled moment. Trump embraced Xi warmly after the two reached a truce last year in their short-lived trade war, and he has kept that warmth despite disagreements over the U.S. war with Iran and other tensions. He has also worked on his relationship with Putin, even as the Russian leader presses a war in Ukraine that is nearly five years old and as Moscow deepens its military, intelligence and diplomatic partnership with Iran.

Trump has said the meeting would let the leaders discuss the Iran war and his goal of a three-way agreement on nuclear stockpiles. The last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States, New START, expired in February, lifting caps on the two largest arsenals for the first time in more than fifty years. Trump turned down a Russian request to extend it another year and called instead for a new, improved and modernized deal that includes China.

China has shown little appetite for that. Pentagon estimates put its arsenal at more than 600 warheads, while the United States and Russia are each thought to hold more than 5,000. Edgard Kagan, a former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he would be shocked if any joint statement from the meeting mentioned denuclearization.

Each host and guest has something to gain. By hosting, Xi may see a chance to show off China's growing clout and prestige. For the Kremlin, the meeting is a coveted opportunity to appear a superpower on par with Washington and Beijing. Kagan said the key for Putin was signaling a desire to talk with Trump and Xi in a way that suggests they are making decisions on Ukraine, which Ukrainians and Europeans dislike. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced concern that the meeting could become a venue for discussing a Ukraine deal behind Kyiv's back.

The trilateral could also overshadow the APEC summit itself, which brings 21 economies to Shenzhen, a coastal city that grew from a small fishing village into a global technology and economic center within a few decades. Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University, said it could undercut China's effort to present itself as a defender of free trade at APEC: "You sort of run counter to Chinese support of multilateralism." It might also muddy Beijing's argument that a Cold War mentality in the West helped cause Russia's invasion, and its criticism that the U.S. has undermined international institutions and treaties in the way it has waged war on Iran.

The leaders know one another well in pairs. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since Xi became president in 2013 and call each other "dear friend." Trump and Putin have met face-to-face seven times, most recently in Alaska in August 2025. Trump and Xi have met eight times, including Xi's state visit to Washington in September. China is Russia's top trading partner, a tie that has strengthened since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Beijing has bought more Russian energy and become Moscow's main supplier of key technologies, including high-tech components for weapons industries, ignoring Western demands to stop. Xi and Putin declared a "no-limits friendship" before the invasion; China officially calls itself neutral while saying Kyiv's Western allies helped provoke the war. Moscow, for its part, repeatedly backs Beijing's position on Taiwan.

Trump also recently struck a diesel deal with Russia, waiving sanctions to allow the sale of millions of tons of fuel. He has blamed surging energy prices on Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, though analysts say the rise in crude prices stems mostly from the Iran war.

Some have compared the planning to the 1945 Yalta Conference, where the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into four occupation zones and finalized plans for the United Nations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the comparison, noting that agreements reached in Shenzhen cannot be imposed on others. The meeting is extremely significant, he said, but the vision of global order is that no one imposes a view of it. What to watch next is whether any joint statement touches Ukraine or arms control, and how Kyiv and Europe react to talks held without them.