Trump News: Xi, Putin Trilateral Meeting at APEC Summit
The latest trump news from Washington carries a diplomatic first. The White House confirmed on Friday that President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday, November 19. The three leaders of the world’s biggest nuclear powers have never sat down together in this format before, and the White House said the talks will focus on nuclear non-proliferation, with the war between the United States and Israel and Iran also on the agenda. Officials were quick to dampen expectations, saying the meeting is intended as the start of a conversation rather than the place where a deal is struck.
White House News: The Announcement and the Schedule
Plans for the three-way meeting were confirmed on Friday, November 13, by the White House, which also confirmed Trump’s attendance at the summit itself, which runs on November 18 and 19 and brings together 21 economies from around the Pacific Rim. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters the president would use the session to press for the reduction of nuclear weapons around the world. Trump is expected to arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday.
The schedule around the trilateral is already taking shape. Trump will also hold bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting since the president returned to office in 2025. No bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin is scheduled, and Washington has said it has no plans to engage with North Korea during the trip. Elon Musk, the technology billionaire and prominent Trump ally, is expected to travel with the president, although he is not expected to attend the trilateral meeting itself. Beijing and Moscow had yet to officially confirm their participation when the White House made its announcement.
The gathering is unprecedented in its format. The United States, China and Russia have held countless bilateral summits and met in larger groups, but the three leaders have never sat down together as a trio. Analysts quoted in early coverage said expectations were low for a breakthrough and that the talks would be heavier in symbolism than in substance. The White House set the same tone, with a senior administration official telling reporters that no agreements were expected to be announced.
The Nuclear Question: New START and a Three-Way Treaty
At the top of the agenda sits the future of nuclear arms control. The last nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, lapsed in February. The treaty was first signed in 2010 and placed caps on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the two countries. Its expiry removed those limits for the first time in more than half a century. Russia currently possesses the largest number of warheads, followed by the United States, with China in third place but rapidly building up its own arsenal.
Trump wants to replace the lapsed treaty with something bigger. He previously rejected Russia’s proposal to extend New START after it expired, demanding instead a new, improved and modernised deal that includes Beijing. That demand is the central difficulty, since China was never a party to New START and has shown little appetite for joining a framework it had no part in forming. A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that the nuclear question would start the conversation in Shenzhen, but added plainly that the administration did not expect to reach any kind of agreement there.
China’s resistance was stated clearly last month, when its Foreign Ministry said it would be neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage. One idea that has been discussed, according to reports, is a narrower commitment to control the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear arsenals.
Iran War News: The Conflict on the Table
The second major item on the agenda is the war on Iran, which the United States and Israel launched on February 28. Full-scale strikes have, for now, ceased, but the conflict remains in a deadlock after more than 100 days. The critical Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and oil and gas prices are still volatile as ships in the strait continue to face Iranian strikes and sea mines. The war has become the most disruptive conflict in the world economy. All three leaders in Shenzhen have a direct stake in how it ends.
China has the most immediate economic exposure. One-third of China’s crude oil supply transited the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and the conflict is also hampering demand for Chinese exports as shipping costs rise and regional trade slows. Beijing has already been pushing for a resolution, and the trilateral gives Xi a direct channel to press the case with the president who launched the war. Russia, meanwhile, has profited from the disruption through rising energy prices and recent sanctions relief from Washington, particularly on diesel. Trump has said he will discuss the Iran war with both Xi and Putin, but Iran has so far refused to capitulate to US demands.
Ukraine War News: The Topic Trump Will Not Raise
One subject will almost certainly not be discussed in Shenzhen: Russia’s war on Ukraine. A senior Trump administration official told reporters that the US president will not bring up the conflict, although Kremlin officials had previously suggested it could be discussed. Washington is pursuing its own peace talks, with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visiting both Ukraine and Russia this week, and the administration does not see the trilateral as the right forum. As one official put it, China is not really a part of that track, so it does not seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there. China, an ally of Moscow’s, has said the Ukraine war is a European issue.
For Putin, keeping Ukraine off the agenda is itself a win. The trilateral gives him a platform to project power and a positive photo opportunity while the conflict that has defined his presidency is set to one side. Analysts say the meeting will give him a first among equals position that he can display at home, showing that he can influence Europe’s security architecture even while the war continues. The decision also reflects the strains in Trump’s own handling of the war. He has accused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the fighting, while Kyiv has alleged that the United States restricted its Starlink satellite connection for attack drones. Trump has blamed Ukraine for soaring diesel prices because of its strikes on Russian oil facilities, while also feted Putin, allowed Russian diesel into global and American markets, and lifted oil sanctions on Moscow.
Trade Tensions and the Chip Dispute
The trilateral also takes place against a backdrop of trade tensions that have shaped the whole year. Trump hit China with a 145 percent tax hike last year, while Beijing retaliated by imposing 125 percent levies on American imports. Tensions mounted further over China’s restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals needed to manufacture advanced chips. The two countries have since reduced tariffs and struck several deals following Trump’s meetings with Xi in South Korea and Washington. A newer irritant has entered the picture: a recent scandal at chip firm Nvidia has prompted the United States to allege that China was spying on the company’s chief executive, Jensen Huang. Beijing denies the claim. Trade is not expected to dominate the trilateral session, but the Trump-Xi bilateral on Thursday is likely to take it up.
What Each Leader Wants From the Meeting
Each of the three leaders arrives in Shenzhen with his own priorities. For President Putin, the meeting is an opportunity to be seen as an equal alongside the leaders of the United States and China. Alexander Bratersky, a Moscow-based journalist and political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the gathering gives Putin a first among equals position he can display at home, proof that he can shape Europe’s security architecture even after the Ukraine war. The photo opportunity alone is worth a great deal to a leader whose international travel has been limited.
For President Xi, the priorities are energy and independence. Beijing has been pushing for a resolution to the war on Iran, which has hit its own energy supplies and export trade. China will also want to avoid being pulled into a nuclear treaty it had no part in establishing, and its Foreign Ministry’s blunt rejection of trilateral disarmament talks last month suggests Xi will hold that line in person. As host, Xi also has a reputational stake: the summit is a moment for China to show off Shenzhen, its fast-growing, ultramodern coastal metropolis.
For President Trump, the priority is the new nuclear treaty he has talked about since New START lapsed. Administration officials say his goal is to include both China and Russia in a new nuclear proliferation agreement, and Wales, the White House spokeswoman, said the president had made it clear he would discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. There is, however, a complication: his Republican Party suffered a crushing defeat in the midterm elections last week, and experts note that a new Democrat-led Congress is likely to support Ukraine more staunchly, which could undermine his leverage with Moscow.
A New Yalta? Reactions and What Happens Next
The scale of the meeting has already invited historical comparisons. Pyotr Tolstoy, chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said the trilateral could lead to a new Yalta, invoking the 1945 conference where the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin, the United States’ Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United Kingdom’s Winston Churchill divided Germany and established the United Nations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the trilateral meeting extremely significant, but pointed out that any agreements reached at the meeting cannot be imposed on other nations.
The comparison captures the central question about Shenzhen: is this the start of a new arrangement between the great powers, or a piece of theatre that changes nothing? The honest answer is that the meeting is more likely to be remembered for its symbolism than for its substance. No agreement is expected, China has already ruled out joining a nuclear treaty, Ukraine is not on the agenda, and Iran shows no sign of giving in. But the first-ever meeting of the three leaders will outlast the news cycle. Watch on Thursday for any joint statement, any softening from China on the nuclear question, and whether the three sides call the session a one-off or the start of a regular conversation. If the trilateral becomes a recurring fixture, Shenzhen will be remembered as the place where a new pattern in great-power diplomacy began.
Source: Al Jazeera