United States President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet in China next week for an unprecedented trilateral summit bringing together the leaders of three major global powers.
The White House confirmed that the meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, southern China. The APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting is scheduled for November 18–19, 2026.
White House Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales told reporters that one of the key issues Trump intends to raise is reducing nuclear weapons worldwide.
“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,” Wales said.
Iran is also expected to feature in the discussions, while the war in Ukraine is not currently expected to be on the agenda. Russia and China had not publicly confirmed the trilateral meeting at the time of the announcement.
Trump is expected to arrive in Shenzhen late Wednesday to attend the two-day APEC summit, which brings together 21 member economies.
On Thursday, he is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi Jinping. It will be the fourth time the two leaders have met since Trump returned to the White House in 2025.
Wales said Trump would conclude his visit to China with the trilateral meeting involving Xi and Putin.
Before travelling to China, Trump is scheduled to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Philippines on Tuesday.
The planned meeting comes amid growing concerns about the future of nuclear arms control following the expiration of the last major nuclear weapons agreement between the United States and Russia in February 2026.
The agreement had placed limits on the two countries’ nuclear arsenals and provided mechanisms for monitoring and verification.
The United Nations has urged Washington and Moscow to negotiate a new arrangement without delay.
Trump has expressed interest in a broader agreement that would also include China, which has been expanding its nuclear arsenal. However, Beijing has shown limited interest in joining such an agreement.
Former senior US officials and international policy experts have warned that reaching a new deal involving all three countries could prove difficult and take years.
Relations between the United States, Russia and China remain a major focus of international diplomacy.
Earlier this year, Xi Jinping separately hosted Putin and Trump in Beijing, with only a few days between the two visits. Trump also hosted Xi in Washington in September.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China has remained one of Moscow’s key trading partners as Russia continues to face sanctions imposed by Western countries.
The planned trilateral meeting would bring the three leaders together at the same table for discussions on nuclear weapons and other international issues, although US officials have cautioned that no agreement is expected from the initial talks.