President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip to China next week to discuss nuclear arsenals, though U.S. officials do not expect a formal agreement. (Foto: Instagram)
President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of his trip to China next week, a White House spokesperson confirmed Friday, Nov. 13. The three leaders are expected to discuss reducing their countries’ nuclear arsenals, but the U.S. government does not expect the meeting to produce a formal commitment.
“We do not expect to reach any kind of agreement,” a U.S. government official said, according to international media reports. The statement signals that the planned discussion is not expected to result in a deal, despite the leaders’ anticipated focus on nuclear weapons.
Representatives of the three countries had discussed the possibility of a trilateral meeting before the White House confirmation. In October, Russian presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov said the idea came up in a conversation between Putin and Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for the U.S. government. Ushakov said none of the three capitals had rejected the proposal.
Ushakov also said China, which is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, was preparing for the possibility of adding a meeting among the three leaders to the official agenda. Trump had previously expressed interest in bringing Putin and Xi together to discuss reductions in nuclear arsenals. In October, he said a potential summit would focus on nuclear weapons and denuclearization, rather than necessarily on negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump has also said the United States is talking with Russia and China about the possibility of reducing nuclear stockpiles. Any such talks would involve the world’s three leading nuclear powers, which together hold a significant share of the global nuclear arsenal.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had also raised the possibility of a meeting, saying the three presidents’ presence at the APEC summit created an opening to discuss a separate gathering. He cautioned, however, that there was not yet a specific proposal or a final understanding about whether the meeting would take place or what it would address.
