Trump, Xi and Putin plan unprecedented joint meeting on sidelines of APEC in China: officials

The leaders of the United States, China and Russia plan to meet on November 19, 2026, on the sidelines of next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China's tech hub of Shenzhen, an unprecedented gathering of the heads of the world's biggest nuclear powers.

While the leaders gathering for joint talks will mark a singular moment, analysts say expectations are low that the talks will lead to major breakthroughs, and they will be heavier in symbolism than substance. Plans for the three-way summit with Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin were confirmed on Friday (November 13, 2026) by the White House.

It comes at a complicated moment in relations between the three countries. Mr. Trump has warmly embraced Mr. Xi after coming to a truce in their short-lived trade war last year and in spite of differences over the U.S. war with Iran and other tensions between the world's foremost economic powers.

Similarly, Mr. Trump has sought to build his relationship with Mr. Putin, even as the Russian leader has persisted in his nearly five-year-old war with Ukraine and as Moscow has deepened its military, intelligence and diplomatic partnership with Iran.

The U.S. President has insisted that such a meeting would provide an opportunity for the three leaders to discuss the U.S. war with Iran and his goal of reaching a three-way agreement on their nuclear arms stockpiles. The last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.

When that treaty — known as New START — expired, Mr. Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernised” deal that includes China. But Beijing's arsenal of more than 600 warheads, according to Pentagon estimates, is far smaller than inventories held by the U.S.

and Russia, each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads. With U.S. and Russian arsenals dwarfing its stockpile, China has shown little interest in developing a nuclear pact. By agreeing to host the meeting, Mr. Xi may be calculating that the moment offers him an opportunity to flex China's growing clout and prestige.

“I would be shocked if there were a joint statement that came out of this meeting that said anything about denuclearisation,” said Edgard Kagan, a former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia who is now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

For the Kremlin, the planned trilateral meeting is a coveted chance to posture as a superpower on par with Washington and Beijing. “I think the key for Putin was that this was very much about signalling a desire to talk to the president and talk to Chairman Xi in a way that suggests that they're making decisions on Ukraine, which obviously the Ukrainians and the Europeans don't like," Mr.

Kagan said. The trilateral could very well overshadow the APEC summit. The summit, which is bringing 21 economies to Shenzhen, marks a big moment for China to show off its fast-growing, ultramodern coastal metropolis that transformed from a small fishing village into a global technology and economic hub in just a few decades.

More substantively, such a gathering could also muddy China's argument that a Cold War mentality in the West was a contributing factor that led to Russia's war on Ukraine and its pointed criticism that the U.S.

has undermined international institutions and treaties with how it has executed its war against Iran. The trilateral meeting could undercut China's push to portray itself as a defender of free trade at APEC, said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University.

“You sort of run counter to Chinese support of multilateralism,” he said. Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi are no strangers. They've fostered a close personal relationship, meeting more than 40 times since Xi became president in 2013 and addressing each other as “dear friend.” Mr.

Trump and Mr.Putin have met face-to-face on seven different occasions, most recently in Alaska in August 2025. Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump have held face-to-face talks on eight occasions, including a September state visit to Washington by Mr.

Xi. Beijing is the Number one trading partner for Moscow, a relationship that has strengthened since Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. As the EU and the West sought to economically isolate Russia, China increased its purchases of Russia's energy resources and became Moscow's principal supplier of key technologies, including high-tech components for Russian weapons industries.

Beijing has ignored Western demands to cut those supplies.