WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will meet jointly with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Nov. 19, in Shenzhen, China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the White House confirmed Friday.
The Associated Press described the planned session as an unprecedented gathering of the heads of the world’s biggest nuclear powers.
“President Trump will conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting between the president of the United States, the president of the People’s Republic of China, and the president of the Russian Federation,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters Friday.
China’s Foreign Ministry announced Friday that the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting will be held in Shenzhen from Nov. 18 to 19 and that Xi will chair the meeting.
Wales said Trump will raise nuclear weapons reduction at the meeting. “The President has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous,” she said.
A senior U.S. official who briefed reporters said Trump plans to discuss the war with Iran with Xi and Putin but will not discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine in the three-way session, according to the AP.
The official said the meeting is intended to serve as the “beginning of hopefully a conversation” on nuclear disarmament and that no agreements are expected to be announced.
The AP reported that the last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing caps on the two largest atomic arsenals.
This story is based on the White House announcement of the meeting, made by spokeswoman Olivia Wales in a briefing for reporters on Friday, Nov. 13.
