Kremlin says China is preparing first-ever Putin-Trump-Xi trilateral summit at APEC

A trilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, his US counterpart Donald Trump and Xi Jinping of China is “being prepared”, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, in what would be the first meeting of its kind in history (Dawn).

“A possible first-ever meeting of the leaders of China, Russia and the United States… is being prepared,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, adding that the aim was to include the meeting in the programme of the APEC summit in Shenzhen on Nov 18-19 (Dawn). The Kremlin said Beijing was already preparing the meeting.

Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that Putin had proposed the meeting to discuss how to end the conflict in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leaders of China, Russia and the United States could hold a three-way meeting on the sidelines of next month’s APEC summit. But he added: “no specific proposals or agreements were discussed or put forward by anyone, either regarding the meeting itself or the possible agenda and content of that meeting” (Dawn).

Ushakov said China “is already dealing with its preparation” and that, “if circumstances are favourable”, Beijing would include it in the Shenzhen programme — with expert-level work on potential topics already done, according to a Bloomberg-sourced briefing (ZeroHedge). The idea was raised during Putin’s meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on Tuesday, and none of the three capitals has rejected it (Ukrainska Pravda).

Trump said on Oct 19 he was ready to meet Putin and Xi to discuss ending the war in Ukraine even without Volodymyr Zelenskyy taking part; the Ukrainian president has said Ukraine must be at the negotiating table when it comes to the issue of Ukraine (Ukrainska Pravda).