Trump, Putin and Xi plan historic trilateral summit in China next week
US President Donald Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Shenzhen on the sidelines of APEC, the White House said, marking the first-ever trilateral talks between the three leaders.
President Donald Trump will hold the first-ever trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Shenzhen, China, the White House announced Saturday.
Historic three-way meeting
The unprecedented talks will take place on the sidelines of the APEC summit, with Trump traveling to Shenzhen on Wednesday after stops in Manila for a Quad leaders’ meeting and the US-ASEAN Special Summit.
Trump will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons during the talks, a White House spokeswoman said. The meeting comes as Trump told advisers in recent days that he may hold off on attacking Iran if the US faces no new provocations from Tehran or Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
What to expect
Senior US officials said Washington does not expect an agreement from the three-way meeting, calling it “the entry point, the first conversation” at the leader level. The officials said Trump plans to raise Iran but not Ukraine, because China is not part of the separate US-Russia track.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will join Trump for parts of the China visit but will not participate in official meetings, according to US officials.
Context: A week of crisis and diplomacy
The summit announcement comes on the heels of a turbulent week for the Trump administration:
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Friday’s FAA nationwide ground stop — all departing US flights were halted for nearly four hours after a communications outage struck Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed overloaded legacy radar and telecommunications equipment; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack but did not rule one out. Airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. ET, though thousands of flights remained canceled or delayed into Saturday.
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New Orleans tanker collision — an asphalt tanker struck the American Heritage riverboat on the Mississippi River around 12:30 p.m. Friday, capsizing the vessel. Nearly 200 people were aboard; all were rescued with no fatalities, though 30+ were injured.
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US floated NATO membership for Ukraine Donbas withdrawal — President Zelenskyy said US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff asked whether Kyiv would concede part of the Donbas still under its control in exchange for NATO membership — the first time Washington raised such a proposal.
Senior US officials described the Shenzhen meeting as exploratory, with no breakthrough expected. The talks mark the first trilateral engagement between Washington, Moscow and Beijing since discussions paused in February after the war with Iran erupted.
This is a developing story and will be updated as the White House releases further details.