US, China and Russia discuss possible meeting between Trump, Xi and Putin

US, Chinese and Russian officials are discussing a possible summit between Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin later this month when the leaders attend the Apec summit in Shenzhen.

People familiar with the situation in Washington, Beijing and Moscow said officials had been holding serious talks about arranging the first trilateral meeting between the heads of state in two weeks in the Chinese city.

“Work is under way on organising such a meeting,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, told The Financial Times.

Asked about the prospects of a trilateral summit, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing was “in communication with relevant parties regarding the meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of state” but omitted any mention of a trilateral with Trump. The White House has been approached for comment.

Trump will travel to Shenzhen in two weeks to attend Apec and hold his third meeting with Xi this year. In advance of his visit to China, he will fly to Manila to attend the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Xi and Trump are expected to hold a fourth meeting in December when the Chinese leader comes to Miami for the G20. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times, according to Chinese state media, including at least three times this year.

It remains unclear whether the three sides are talking together, or if Beijing is instead holding bilateral talks with Washington and Moscow. People familiar with the situation cautioned that China, which would convene the meeting as the host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum, had not yet decided whether to proceed.

One person familiar with the talks said Washington and Moscow were pressing China to agree to a meeting. The Chinese foreign ministry last month said it had “no information to provide” about a possible trilateral summit.

Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday said Xi seemed confused when he asked him about a possible trilateral summit when they met in China last week. He said Xi asked about the origin of the rumours.

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One challenge to hosting a three-way meeting is setting an acceptable agenda for the leaders. Steinmeier said Xi stated there were no plans for a trilateral meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine, and that the Chinese leader added Europeans should be at the table given the war was a European conflict.

A person familiar with Russia’s thinking said Moscow did not expect substantive talks on Ukraine during the mooted summit. Russia thinks China does not want to take a leading role in working out an end to Putin’s nearly five-year invasion, instead only taking credit once a peace settlement is in sight, the person said.

Trump has said he is open to holding a trilateral meeting in Shenzhen but has stressed the need to focus on nuclear arms control. However, Beijing has repeatedly shown no interest in holding arms control talks with Washington given that the US has many more nuclear weapons than China.

“Xi would probably see hosting the trilateral meeting as a feather in his cap demonstrating his leading role on the international stage,” said Dennis Wilder, a former top White House Asia adviser to former US president George W Bush. “Apec itself has very modest goals and is unlikely on its own to produce headliner results.”

Wilder said Trump wanted to focus on arms control because of China’s “massive expansion” of nuclear weapons in recent years, but said Beijing had for decades been unwilling to engage on the issue.

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“China has refused arms control talks because its small nuclear force was shrouded in extreme secrecy,” he said. “In many ways, Beijing has seen its lack of transparency on strategic forces serving as a nuclear ace-in-the-hole.”

It was unclear if the Iran war would be on the agenda if the leaders meet in Shenzhen. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026