Trump, Xi and Putin to hold unprecedented three-way summit in China

OPA WIRE, Nov 14 (OPA) — US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are set to hold an unprecedented three-way meeting next week in China. The White House confirmed the talks will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, marking a rare high-level gathering of the three nuclear-armed powers.

The discussions come nine months after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Washington and Moscow expired. That lapse left the world's two largest atomic arsenals without caps for the first time in more than 50 years. A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that expectations remain low, noting that officials do not expect to reach any formal agreement during this initial conversation.

Trump plans to discuss the Iran war with Xi and Putin, though a senior US official confirmed the agenda will steer away from Russia's war in Ukraine. Russia currently holds the most nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Tech billionaire Elon Musk will travel with Trump to China but will not attend the closed-door meeting.

The planned summit has drawn immediate comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the parallel, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced concern that the meeting could become a platform to negotiate a Ukraine deal without Kyiv's participation.