A summit floated by the Kremlin
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he would join a three-way meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping. The Kremlin said the idea came up in recent discussions. Next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, has emerged as a possible venue. No three-way meeting has been fixed, and Beijing has not said it would host one.
Trump is expected to travel to China in mid-November for the APEC leaders' meeting. Putin has raised the idea of a joint meeting in two phone calls with Trump, including one last week, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and Axios.
Denuclearization, not Ukraine
Trump framed the purpose narrowly. "I would do it, not so much for Ukraine," he said. "We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons, denuclearization. And anytime I can have a meeting on denuclearization." He added that "if President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it."
Moscow had a different agenda. Russian officials described the meeting as a chance to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reported that Putin wanted the talks to produce a settlement favorable to Moscow. Trump said other subjects could come up but that the meeting would be "based on denuclearization."
He also renewed his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying it was "time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine." The remarks follow a US decision to waive sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy, which drew criticism from several Republican lawmakers.
Why the format is unusual
No US president has met the Russian and Chinese leaders together. Arms control talks among the three countries have stalled for years. Washington has pressed Beijing to join a nuclear arms framework, and Beijing has refused, arguing that US and Russian arsenals are far larger.
A three-way summit would put those disputes in one room. It would also tie the meeting to a war that Trump says he wants to end quickly. Whether Xi agrees to the format is unclear. Chinese officials have stayed silent on the proposal, and the Kremlin said only that the possibility had been discussed.