Trump, Xi and Putin plan nuclear talks at China summit

President Donald Trump plans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin together next week in Shenzhen, China, for talks that the White House says will include reducing nuclear weapons. The meeting, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, would bring the leaders of the three countries with the largest nuclear arsenals into a joint discussion.

“President Trump will conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting between the president of the United States, the president of the People’s Republic of China and the president of the Russian Federation,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told reporters.

“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,” she said.

No agreement is expected from the meeting, a senior U.S. official said, describing it as an “entry point” and “the first conversation.” According to NBC News, the official said Trump also intends to discuss the Iran war with Xi and Putin, but not the war in Ukraine. The official said Ukraine discussions are on a separate track that does not include China.

The meeting is planned months after New START, the last nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia, expired in February. The agreement’s expiration removed limits on the two countries’ arsenals for the first time in more than half a century. Trump rejected a Russian proposal to extend the bilateral deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernized” agreement that includes China.

China has more than 600 nuclear warheads, according to Pentagon estimates cited by NBC News, compared with more than 5,000 each for the United States and Russia. Beijing has shown little interest in a pact while its arsenal remains much smaller than theirs. The United Nations has urged Washington and Moscow to agree on a new framework without delay.

Trump is due to arrive in Shenzhen late Wednesday for the two-day APEC summit, which brings together 21 economies. He will hold separate talks with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting since Trump returned to office in 2025, according to the BBC. His trip also includes an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the Philippines on Tuesday.

Moscow and Beijing had not commented on the announced three-way meeting, the BBC reported. Chinese state media said Friday that Xi would hold bilateral talks at APEC but did not report plans for a trilateral meeting. Earlier this month, Russia’s Tass news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying there were “signals confirming readiness” for such talks.

According to NBC News, no separate Trump-Putin meeting is scheduled. A senior U.S. official also said there are no plans for Trump to engage with North Korea during the trip. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed concern that the three-way meeting could provide a venue for discussing a possible Ukraine deal without Kyiv.