Trump Expects a First-Ever Sit-Down With Xi and Putin Next Week. Beijing Says Talks Are Underway.

The presidents of the United States, China and Russia have never sat down together as a trio. President Trump says that is about to change.

Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach on Sunday before flying back to Washington, Trump said he will travel to China for the Asia-Pacific economic summit in Shenzhen, set for Nov. 18 and 19, and expects to see both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin there.

“One of the meetings, I think, will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that’ll be interesting,” Trump said, according to Reuters, as carried by The Straits Times. “We’re talking a lot of things, including denuclearisation, but we’ll be talking a lot of things. We’re trying to end the war in Iran.”

Beijing isn’t saying no

On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun was asked about Trump’s remarks. He said China “is in communication with relevant parties” about a meeting of the three presidents, according to China’s Global Times and The Hindu. That’s the same line spokeswoman Mao Ning used at a Nov. 4 briefing. The Kremlin said back on Oct. 21 that the meeting was “being prepared.”

Nothing is locked in, and the format is still unclear. One Shanghai scholar told Chinese state media an informal exchange was likelier than a formal three-way summit, and said Russia was the “most enthusiastic” of the three.

What’s on the table

Trump has been pushing for this kind of nuclear arms conversation for weeks. In October he said he was open to three-way arms control talks with Xi and Putin focused on denuclearization. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Putin pitched using a three-way meeting to talk about ending his war in Ukraine.

That fits with what’s already moving. Trump said Sunday he is “very close” to a deal on the Russia-Ukraine war, without giving terms, and his envoys are bringing Ukraine and Russia to the same table in Abu Dhabi this week.

A busy year with Xi

If the Shenzhen meetings happen, it will be Trump and Xi’s third time together this year, after Trump’s trip to Beijing in May and Xi’s White House visit in September. They are due to meet a fourth time at the G20 summit in Miami in December. Trump last met Putin in person in Alaska in August 2025.

Not everyone is cheering. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last month, “We really don’t want this to turn into ‘Yalta 2, 3, 4’,” a reference to the 1945 summit where the World War II victors divided up the map, and said “Russia wants this meeting more than anyone.”

Trump’s bet is the opposite: that the fastest way to end wars and shrink nuclear stockpiles is to get the men who control them in one room. Shenzhen is nine days out.