President Donald Trump said Sunday night that he expects to hold a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his upcoming trip to China, where he is set to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on November 18 and 19 in Shenzhen.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Donald J. Trump International Airport, Trump said the meeting would likely take place alongside the summit and touch on denuclearization and the situation in Iran.
“Well, I’m going to be going to China. [Xi] just left here, and one of the meetings I think will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that’ll be interesting. We’ll talk a lot of things, including denuclearization, but we’ll be talking a lot of things,” Trump said.
Trump also pointed to pressure on Iran as part of the broader conversation he expects to have in Shenzhen.
“We’re trying to end the war in Iran, and we’re doing well because… all we have to do — we’re choking it off. We have Operation Iron Gate that just went into effect. That means nothing comes in by land, and as you know, the naval blockade, nothing comes in by water. So we have it very well blocked off,” he added.
The possibility of a three-way sit-down had already been signaled by Moscow. Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “work is underway” to arrange a meeting between Trump, Putin and Xi on the sidelines of the Shenzhen summit. The Financial Times reported that American, Chinese and Russian officials have been in discussions over such a meeting, which would be the first of its kind among the three leaders.
Peskov described the prospective meeting in positive terms, saying there was a “general understanding among the participants of this possible meeting that it would be worthwhile and extremely useful.”
If it goes forward, the Shenzhen gathering would mark the fourth in-person meeting between Trump and Xi and the second between Trump and Putin since Trump’s second term began in January 2025.
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