Trump, Xi and Putin Plan Unprecedented Trilateral 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 in Shenzhen, China's technology hub. Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will meet on the sidelines of next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. It is the first time the leaders of the world's three biggest nuclear powers have gathered in this format.

Analysts quoted by the Associated Press expect the meeting to carry more symbolism than substance. A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said it is meant to start nuclear talks among the three and that no agreements are expected to be announced. Trump has said the meeting would let the leaders discuss the U.S. war with Iran and his goal of a three-way deal on nuclear stockpiles. The official said he will raise Iran with Xi and Putin but steer away from Ukraine.

The arms question has a deadline behind it. The last nuclear pact between Russia and the United States, New START, expired in February, removing caps on the two largest arsenals for the first time in more than fifty years. Russia had asked to extend it for another year, and Trump refused. He called instead for a new, improved and modernized deal that includes China.

China is the hard part. Pentagon estimates put its arsenal at more than 600 warheads, while the United States and Russia are each believed to hold more than 5,000. With its stockpile so much smaller, Beijing has shown little interest in a nuclear pact, and it was the party least certain about the summit's value. Xi may still see a chance to show off China's growing clout by hosting. For the Kremlin, sitting at the table is a chance to look like a superpower on par with Washington and Beijing.

Edgard Kagan, a former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 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, something 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 meeting could also overshadow APEC 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 a three-way nuclear summit runs counter to Chinese support for multilateralism and could undercut Beijing's effort to present itself as a defender of free trade. It could also muddy China's arguments that a Cold War mentality in the West helped cause Russia's war and that the U.S. has undermined international institutions with its conduct of the Iran war.

The leaders know each other well in pairs. Xi and Putin 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 state visit to Washington in September. Trump has warmed to Xi since a truce in their brief trade war last year, despite differences over Iran. He has also courted Putin even as Russia's war in Ukraine nears its fifth year and Moscow deepens military, intelligence and diplomatic ties with Iran.

China is Russia's top trading partner, a bond that strengthened after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. Beijing bought more Russian energy, became Moscow's main supplier of key technologies, including high-tech components for weapons industries, and ignored Western demands to stop. Before the invasion, Xi and Putin declared a "no-limits friendship." China calls itself neutral while blaming Kyiv's Western allies for provoking Russia, and Moscow repeatedly backs Beijing's position on Taiwan. Trump recently struck a diesel deal with Russia, waiving sanctions to allow sales of millions of tons of fuel. He blames high energy prices on Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, though analysts say the Iran war is the main driver.

Some have compared the plans 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 dismissed the comparison, noting that any agreements in Shenzhen cannot be imposed on others. What to watch Thursday is whether Ukraine comes up at all, and whether Beijing gives any sign of joining nuclear talks.