In brief: US President Donald Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a trilateral summit in Shenzhen on Nov. 19. The White House said discussions will focus on nuclear arms reduction and Iran, while Russia’s war against Ukraine will remain off the agenda.
US President Donald Trump will hold a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China next week, but Russia’s war against Ukraine will be excluded from the agenda, the White House announced Friday, Nov. 13.
The unprecedented trilateral summit is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 19, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, with nuclear arms reduction and the war in Iran expected to dominate discussions.
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“The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters, according to AFP.
But despite the intensified US-led diplomatic push to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, senior administration officials said the conflict would not be discussed during the meeting with Putin and Xi.
“I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,” a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
The official explained that Washington was pursuing a separate diplomatic process with Kyiv and Moscow.
“China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn’t seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there,” the official said.
White House position contrasts with Moscow’s earlier announcement
The White House announcement marks a notable departure from Moscow’s earlier statements suggesting that the upcoming summit would provide an opportunity for Trump and Putin to continue negotiations over Ukraine.
As Kyiv Post reported, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Thursday that Trump and Putin would discuss the settlement of Russia’s war against Ukraine during the APEC summit.
“Naturally, during the planned meeting with him at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, discussion of the entire range of issues related to the settlement will continue,” Ushakov said.
The Kremlin’s announcement came after Putin held approximately two and a half hours of talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow.
Those talks followed negotiations involving Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.
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