For the first time, the leaders of the United States, China and Russia are expected to sit down together. The White House said Friday that President Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen next week, in what officials are calling an unprecedented three-way meeting.
The timing is not accidental. The last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expired in February, leaving the two countries without a formal cap on their strategic arsenals for the first time in decades. Trump has said he wants a new, modernized agreement, and one that for the first time would bring China into the fold alongside the US and Russia, reflecting Beijing's growing nuclear arsenal. That goal is expected to be the central topic when the three leaders meet on the sidelines of the summit in Shenzhen, China's southern technology hub.
Officials briefed on the plans say the conversation will likely extend beyond arms control. North Korea and the ongoing conflict involving Iran are both expected to come up, according to people familiar with the planning. US officials have indicated that Russia's war in Ukraine is not expected to be a focus of the trilateral session, even though Putin will be in the room.
The meeting caps a run of intense, if indirect, diplomacy among the three powers this year. It also puts Shenzhen, better known as a manufacturing and technology center, briefly at the center of global diplomacy. No formal agenda or joint statement has been released ahead of the gathering.
The summit is expected to take place on the sidelines of the APEC leaders' meetings in Shenzhen later this week. Watch for whether the three sides issue any joint language on arms control, and whether Iran or North Korea get specific mention afterward.
Why are these three leaders meeting together for the first time?
The meeting follows the expiration of the last US-Russia nuclear arms treaty in February, and Trump has been pushing for a new, modernized pact that would also involve China.
Where is the summit happening?
On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.