The leaders of the United States, China and Russia plan to meet 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.
Plans for the three-way summit with Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have been confirmed by the White House. It comes at a complicated moment in relations between the three countries.
Trump has warmly embraced Xi after coming to a truce in their short-lived trade war last year and in spite of differences over the US war with Iran and other tensions between the world's foremost economic powers.
Similarly, Trump has sought to build his relationship with Putin, even as the Russian leader has persisted in his nearly 5-year-old war with Ukraine and as Moscow has deepened its military, intelligence and diplomatic partnership with Iran.
The US president has insisted that such a meeting would provide an opportunity for the three leaders to discuss the US 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, 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 US and Russia, each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads. With US and Russian arsenals dwarfing its stockpile, China has shown little interest in developing a nuclear pact.
By agreeing to host the meeting, Xi may be calculating that the moment offers him an opportunity to flex China's growing clout and prestige.
For the Kremlin, the planned trilateral meeting is a coveted chance to posture as a superpower on par with Washington and Beijing.
The trilateral could very well overshadow the APEC summit. which is bringing 21 economies to Shenzhen, China's coastal metropolis that's transformed into a global technology and economic hub in just a few decades.
The leaders have met in pairs plenty of times over the years
Putin and 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.”
Trump and Putin have met face-to-face on seven different occasions, most recently in Alaska in August 2025. Xi and Trump have held face-to-face talks on eight occasions, including a September state visit to Washington by Xi.
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.
China officially has said it is neutral on the conflict, while charging that Kyiv’s Western allies played a part in provoking Russia’s military action in Ukraine.
Moscow, in turn, has repeatedly declared its support for Beijing’s policy on issues related to Taiwan.
Trump recently struck a diesel deal with Russia, waiving sanctions against Moscow and allowing for the sale of millions of tons of the fuel. The US leader has blamed surging energy prices on Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil refineries. Analysts, however, say the rise in global crude prices is due mostly to the Iran war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed concern that the trilateral meeting could serve as a platform for discussing a possible Ukraine deal behind Kyiv’s back.
Planning for the summit has drawn comparisons to the Yalta Conference, the 1945 gathering at which the leaders of the US, Britain and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into four military occupation zones and finalised plans for establishing the United Nations.
