Trump says he expects to meet Xi, Putin at China summit

President Donald Trump said on Sunday, November 8, that he expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin together at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen. The summit runs November 18-19, and Trump said the talks would cover ending the war in Iran and denuclearization, Reuters reported. It would be the first three-way summit of the three leaders. As of Monday, neither Beijing nor Moscow had confirmed it.reuters.com

"One of the meetings, I think, will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that'll be interesting," Trump told reporters before flying back to Washington from Florida. "We're talking a lot of things, including denuclearization, but we'll be talking a lot of things. We're trying to end the war in Iran," he said, according to Reuters. RTHK reported the same remarks.gbcode.rthk.hk+1

Beijing and Moscow stay noncommittal

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said he had no information to share yet about a trilateral meeting, the South China Morning Post reported. Earlier, on November 4, spokeswoman Mao Ning had said China "is in communication with relevant parties" about such a meeting, The Epoch Times reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the three countries are drafting proposals for an agenda and that a meeting would "capture the world's attention," Russia's state news agency TASS reported.scmp.com+2

The meeting may not be about the same thing for everyone. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Putin wants to use the meeting to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine. According to EFE, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized that idea because Kyiv would not be part of the talks.efe.com+1

Pressure over the Iran war

The war with Iran began in February. Tehran has struck US bases in neighboring countries, and the two sides remain locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz that has pushed up global oil prices, the SCMP reported. Trump has said the conflict contributed to Republicans' defeat in last week's midterm elections. He also told CNN on Sunday that he was very unlikely to order new strikes on Iran as long as talks made progress.scmp.com

Chinese analysts say Beijing is more likely to act as a neutral host than to pressure Tehran directly. "China's most significant contribution would be providing a diplomatic platform for all parties to engage," said Chen Fengying, a former head of the Institute of World Economic Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, the SCMP reported.scmp.com

Denuclearization is harder. Beijing has long refused to join three-way arms control talks, arguing that its nuclear arsenal is much smaller than those of the US and Russia, and Trump has not said what he would propose, according to the SCMP. The Shenzhen trip would be Trump's second visit to China this year, after his May summit with Xi in Beijing, The Epoch Times noted.theepochtimes.com+1