Trump, Xi, and Putin to Meet in Shenzhen, White House Confirms

President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shenzhen, China, on November 19, 2026.

The White House confirmed the gathering on Friday for the final leg of Trump’s visit to the country during the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting, Brookings reported. It is the first time the heads of the three nuclear-armed nations have convened in a three-way summit.

“Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are planning to meet on the sidelines of a summit in China next week, the White House has said. The historic meeting between the respective leaders of the US, Russia and China will take place as Trump attends the Asia-Pacific Economic…

— Post by @sfrantzman on X

The choice of Shenzhen—a boomtown adjacent to Hong Kong and the base for tech giants such as Huawei, BYD, and Tencent—offers Beijing a venue to showcase its modern coastal metropolis, according to The Independent and CBS News.

In addition to Trump, Xi, and Putin, the 21 APEC member economies participating include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam, The Independent reported.

⚡️Trump, Putin to discuss Ukraine peace settlement during meeting in China, Kremlin says. "Naturally, during the planned meeting with him at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, we will continue to discuss the full range of issues related to the settlement."https://t.co/59TYzIdtci

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European nations, not being Pacific Rim countries, do not have a seat at the APEC table, Brookings said. Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo met with General Yang Zhibin. Billionaire Elon Musk will travel with Trump to Shenzhen, though officials said Musk will not participate in the official bilateral or trilateral meetings, The Jerusalem Post and The New York Times reported.

Discussions will focus on nuclear non-proliferation. When the New START treaty expired, Trump rejected a Russian proposal to extend the bilateral agreement for another year, demanding instead a new deal that includes China, Yahoo News reported. Pentagon estimates indicate that the United States and Russia each possess more than 5,000 warheads, whereas China maintains an arsenal of more than 600 warheads, NBC News reported.

With news of the Trump-Xi-Putin trilateral meeting at APEC confirmed, re-upping this series of short essays by Brookings colleagues and myself previewing the meeting/implications. My expectation is symbolism will serve as the substance of this meeting. https://t.co/mbsf8rOjo8 pic.twitter.com/BRiHG2MRfu

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China has continued expanding its nuclear facilities, putting Beijing on track to hold 1,000 warheads by 2030, The New York Times reported. China has shown little interest in joining a nuclear pact it was not involved in forming, according to Reuters via Al Jazeera.

“The President has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous,” White House Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales told reporters, according to The Jerusalem Post.

"US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on Wednesday on the importance of leader-level talks to advance peace and denuclearisation, including in any trilateral summit with Russia, the US State Department said." https://t.co/zVhMxzaVlS

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Xi and Putin have maintained a close personal relationship, meeting more than 40 times since Xi assumed the presidency in 2013 and addressing each other as “dear friend,” NBC News reported. Trump and Putin have met face-to-face on seven occasions, most recently in Alaska in August 2025, Yahoo News said.

U.S. Officials View Meeting as Start to Nuclear Disarmament Talks

Senior U.S. officials lowered expectations for any immediate breakthroughs, characterizing the session as a starting point. “We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement,” a senior U.S. official said, describing the meeting as “the entry point, the first conversation,” CNN reported. The trilateral format is intended to serve as the beginning of a conversation on nuclear disarmament, Yahoo News reported.

Aside from nuclear stockpiles, White House officials confirmed that discussions in Shenzhen could touch on North Korea and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, The New York Post and Reuters reported.

Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, including restrictions on rare earth minerals needed for advanced chips, form part of the background, Al Jazeera said. U.S. officials said export controls on sensitive chip technology and an espionage investigation involving Nvidia chief Jensen Huang would not be raised with China, according to CBS News and NBC News.

The administration drew a line regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine. Washington maintains a separate negotiation track with Moscow and Kyiv involving U.S. envoys, and officials said China is not part of those discussions, keeping Ukraine off the trilateral agenda, The New York Post reported.

Allies Fear Major Power Bargain Could Bypass Their Interests

The meeting carries symbolic weight. Allies in Europe and nations like Ukraine have expressed anxiety that a bargain among major powers could bypass their interests, drawing comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference, The Guardian reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced concern that the gathering could serve as a platform for discussing a Ukraine deal behind Kyiv’s back, Yahoo News said.

Analysts such as Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University, suggested the meeting could undercut China’s efforts to portray itself as a defender of free trade and multilateralism at APEC, NBC News reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the gathering extremely significant, while saying that future agreements cannot be imposed on other nations, according to Al Jazeera.

“However, let’s not forget that the vision for a global order is that no one tries to impose any particular view of global order, and it should be based entirely on mutual benefit and mutual respect,” Peskov said, as reported by NBC News.

Academic commentators also weighed in. Simon Mabon, a professor of international politics at Lancaster University, told Al Jazeera that observers can expect photo-ops accompanied by rhetoric from Trump, Al Jazeera reported.

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