Trump to meet Putin and Xi in China next week for historic meeting, White House confirms

Donald Trump will meet Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in China next week for an unprecedented three-way meeting between the leaders of the US, Russia, and China, with nuclear weapons and the war in Iran expected to be on the agenda.The meeting will take place on Thursday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, the White House confirmed on Friday. It will bring together the leaders of the world’s three largest nuclear powers for the first time, although all three have held bilateral talks with one another.“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,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.The meeting comes nine months after the expiry of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the last major nuclear arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow. The treaty, which expired in February, had placed limits on the two countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals, leaving the world’s two largest nuclear powers without those restrictions for the first time in more than half a century.Russian artist Alexey Sergienko unveils his new pop art painting dubbed Shenzhen, 26 in Saint Petersburg (AFP/Getty)Mr Trump has rejected Russia's offer to extend it for another year, saying he wanted a new agreement that would also include China.Beijing has resisted joining such negotiations, arguing that its nuclear arsenal is much smaller than those of Washington and Moscow. China has more than 600 nuclear warheads, compared with more than 5,000 each for Russia and the US.“We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement,” a senior Trump administration official told reporters, according to Reuters. “This is a difficult topic for China to address, but we do think ​it’s time for China to sort of step up, you know, to the adults’ table, if you will, and have ​adult conversations about adult things.”Mr Trump also intends to discuss the war in Iran with Mr Xi and Mr Putin, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not expected to feature, the official said. “We’ve had many meetings ⁠recently with ​the Russians, but China is not really a part of that track, ​so it doesn’t seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there,” the official said.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that his country must be involved in any discussions about its future.Russia had previously proposed the three-way meeting, with Mr Putin reportedly keen to use it to discuss Ukraine. The Russian president had floated the idea during a telephone conversation with Trump last month, according to the Wall Street Journal.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that his country must be involved in any discussions about its future (PA Wire)Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha had warned against giving Putin such a platform. “Inviting Putin to such a meeting would feed his appetite for self-aggrandisement and give him a stature he does not deserve,” he said last month, adding that it would only “encourage Putin to continue this war”.The planned summit has also drawn comparisons with the 1945 Yalta Conference, where the leaders of the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union discussed the postwar settlement in Europe. The prospect of Mr Trump, Mr Putin, and Mr Xi meeting without Ukraine has revived concerns about major powers making decisions that affect other countries without consulting them.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the comparison, saying that any agreements reached in Shenzhen could not be imposed on other countries. He nevertheless described a meeting between the three leaders as “extremely significant”. “However, let’s not forget that the vision for a global order is that no one tries to impose any particular view of global order, and it should be based entirely on mutual benefit and mutual respect,” he said.Mr Trump is due to visit Manila on Tuesday for talks with leaders of the Association of South-east Asian Nations before heading to Shenzhen. He is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks and a working lunch with Xi on Thursday, ahead of the trilateral meeting.The White House said billionaire Elon Musk would accompany Mr Trump on the China visit, but a senior US official said he would not attend the talks with Mr Xi and Mr Putin.