Trump, Xi and Putin to meet in Shenzhen on Thursday on APEC sidelines

The Story

U.S. President Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin plan to meet Thursday on the sidelines of next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, according to the White House.

The White House confirmed the three-way meeting on Friday, describing it as an unprecedented gathering of the leaders of the world’s biggest nuclear powers.

The U.S. president plans to discuss the war involving Iran with Xi and Putin, while avoiding discussion of Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

The meeting is intended to serve as “the beginning of hopefully a conversation” on nuclear disarmament, the U.S. official said, adding that no agreements are expected to be announced.

The official pointed to the nuclear arms issue as one in which China should “step up ... to the adult table,” while noting that the stockpile problem is difficult for Beijing to engage on.

Beijing’s arsenal is more than 600 warheads, according to Pentagon estimates, compared with inventories estimated at more than 5,000 warheads each for the United States and Russia.

The senior U.S. official also noted that the last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States, New START, expired in February, removing caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.

The trilateral leaders have met in pairs frequently in recent years: the leaders of China and the U.S. held face-to-face talks on eight occasions, including Xi’s September visit to Washington, while Trump and Putin met seven times, most recently in Alaska in August 2025.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting is “extremely significant” but dismissed comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference, adding that any potential agreements reached in Shenzhen can’t be enforced on others.