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

Next week, in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, the leaders of the United States, China and Russia plan to sit down together on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The White House has confirmed the plan for the three-way meeting between Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, an unprecedented gathering of the heads of the world's biggest nuclear powers.

It arrives at a complicated moment for all three relationships. Trump has embraced Xi warmly since the two reached a truce in their short-lived trade war last year, even though the US war with Iran and other tensions divide the world's foremost economic powers. He has also worked to build ties with Putin, while the Russian leader presses on with a war in Ukraine that is nearly five years old and Moscow deepens its military, intelligence and diplomatic partnership with Iran.

Trump has said the meeting would give the three men a chance to 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. Its expiry removed caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century. Russia had called for extending the deal another year; Trump rejected that and demanded "a new, improved and modernised" agreement that includes China.

Beijing has shown little appetite for that. Pentagon estimates put China's arsenal at more than 600 warheads, while the US and Russia are each thought to hold more than 5,000. With its stockpile so dwarfed, China has shown little interest in a nuclear pact. By hosting the meeting, Xi may be calculating that it lets him display China's growing clout and prestige. For the Kremlin, the encounter is a coveted chance to present itself as a superpower on par with Washington and Beijing. The trilateral could well overshadow the APEC summit itself, which is bringing 21 economies to Shenzhen, a coastal metropolis that has become a global technology and economic hub within a few decades.

The leaders know each other 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 held eight in-person talks, including Xi's September state visit to Washington.

The Russia-China relationship has deepened as the EU and the West tried to isolate Moscow economically. China increased its purchases of Russian energy and became Moscow's principal supplier of key technologies, including high-tech components for Russian weapons industries, ignoring Western demands to cut those supplies. Officially, Beijing calls itself neutral on Ukraine, while charging that Kyiv's Western allies helped provoke Russia's military action. Moscow, for its part, has repeatedly declared support for Beijing's policy on Taiwan.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced concern that the meeting could become a platform for discussing a possible Ukraine deal behind Kyiv's back. The planning has drawn comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference, where the leaders of the US, Britain and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into four military occupation zones and finalised plans for the United Nations. What to watch next week is whether the talks turn to Iran or Ukraine, and whether China shows any movement on arms control.