White House confirms Trump-Xi-Putin meeting in Shenzhen

President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Nov. 19, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, a White House spokeswoman said Friday. It will be the first three-way meeting between the leaders of the three largest nuclear powers. U.S. officials have already said not to expect a deal, and analysts expect the meeting to carry more symbolic weight than practical results.apnews.com+1

"The President has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous," Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales told reporters, according to Anadolu Agency. Trump will first hold a bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi on Thursday afternoon, then end his China visit with the three-way talks.aa.com.tr

Low expectations

"We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement," a U.S. official said. A senior official described the meeting as "the entry point, the first conversation, certainly at the leader level between these countries". The official said Trump plans to raise the Iran war but not Ukraine, because China is not part of the separate U.S.-Russia talks on that conflict. The New York Post first reported the meeting and said North Korea could also come up.reuters.com+3

The New START treaty, the last nuclear arms pact between the U.S. and Russia, expired in February. Trump turned down Moscow's offer to extend it and instead called for a new deal that includes China. The Pentagon estimates Beijing has more than 600 warheads, compared with more than 5,000 each for the U.S. and Russia, and China has shown little interest in an arms pact.apnews.com

"I would be shocked if there were a joint statement that came out of this meeting that said anything about denuclearization," said Edgard Kagan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.apnews.com

Competing agendas

Putin first proposed the meeting, and Kagan said it lets the Russian leader suggest that the three powers are making decisions on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he worries the talks could be used to discuss a Ukraine deal without Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has rejected comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference.foreignpolicy.com+1

Before Shenzhen, Trump will travel to Manila for a special ASEAN-U.S. summit on Nov. 17. In China, he and Xi are also expected to discuss extending their trade truce, which runs through January. Hal Brands said Beijing would agree to the meeting only if it were "utterly devoid of substance".biz.chosun.com+1