Xi-Trump-Putin summit evokes 1945 Yalta carve-up

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a binder beside Chinese President Xi Jinping before Xi delivers a speech during a state dinner at the White House in Washington on Sept. 24. | REUTERS

Nov 12, 2026

BEIJING – A possible China-U.S.-Russia summit has prompted alarm of a modern-day Yalta Conference, with three powerful men carving up the world — with little regard for Ukraine, Europe and Taiwan or anyone else.

But apart from an historic photo opportunity, the meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at the Nov. 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen will likely achieve little, analysts say.

When then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Britain’s Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met in Yalta in February 1945, they laid out the post-World War II settlement and new territorial boundaries in Europe.

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