Trump, Xi, Putin to hold historic meeting in China on sidelines of APEC Summit

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first ever three-way meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China at a summit in Shenzhen next week, the White House said Friday.

Trump wants to talk about reducing nuclear arsenals at the trilateral talks on Thursday and is also set to bring up his war in Iran — but he is not expected to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, US officials said.

The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.

Nuclear weapons

“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,” Wales said.

The last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. When that treaty — known as New START — expired, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernized” deal that includes China.

The trilateral meeting is expected to serve as a start to the nuclear talks between the three leaders and no agreements are expected to be announced, according to a senior US official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.

But Beijing’s arsenal of more than 600 warheads, according to Pentagon estimates, is far smaller than inventories held by the US and Russia, each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads. With US and Russian arsenals dwarfing its stockpile, China has shown little interest in developing a nuclear pact.

Russian war on Ukraine

One of the major conflicts dominating Trump’s second term as president will feature, but the other will not, the US officials said.

“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 on a call.

Washington has a “whole other track” of negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the official added, referring to talks that US envoys have had in recent days with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn’t seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there,” the official added.

Zelensky has expressed concern that the trilateral meeting could serve as a platform for discussing a possible Ukraine deal behind Kyiv’s back.

Elon Musk

Tesla and Space X boss Elon Musk will accompany Trump on his trip to China but won’t be involved in the meeting with Xi and Putin, the officials said.

Trump will also hold a bilateral working lunch and meeting with the Chinese president on Thursday — their fourth meeting since the US president’s return to power last year.

But Trump is not scheduled to have a separate one-on-one with Putin.

Among other topics, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang’s resignation over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy is not expected to come up in Trump’s meetings with Xi, the officials said.

“The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip,” a second US senior official said.

The United States also did not plan to discuss export controls on sensitive chip technology, which were at the heart of the Nvidia scandal.

“We do not negotiate American export controls. These are national security matters that we develop in the administration... and we don’t expect it to figure at all in any of our conversations with the Chinese while we’re there,” the second official said.

Trump will leave Washington on Monday and arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit before heading to Shenzhen.