Russia proposes a Trump-Xi-Putin meeting in China next month
Any discussions between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing could turn to the matter of the war in Ukraine, without the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a meeting with President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, people familiar with the Russian and Chinese discussions said.
Putin raised the possibility of meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzhen, China, next month, according to a person familiar with the Russian conversation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
The Chinese side has reached out to “U.S. counterparts” for clarity about the desire for such a meeting, said an Asian diplomat familiar with Chinese discussions on the matter and who likewise spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Any discussions between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing could turn to the matter of the war in Ukraine, without the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In remarks to reporters Monday during a trip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a meeting had been discussed but not finalized. “I think the president is open to anything that he can do to help bring the war to an end, if it’s possible,” Rubio said.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump said he was open to meeting with Putin and Xi in China without Zelensky but did not say whether such talks would occur.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a meeting between Trump, Xi, and Putin had been discussed “hypothetically,” but he noted that “no substantive proposals or agreements — neither regarding the meeting itself nor regarding a possible agenda or the content of the meeting — were discussed or put forward by anyone.” China’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the matter.
The timing of the request — amid a deadly escalation in the war as both sides target a widening array of infrastructure — could mean Putin is seeking to take advantage of an apparent fraying of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.
On Sunday, Zelensky publicly accused the White House of restricting Kyiv’s access to Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service critical for Ukrainian military operations, without warning. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied doing so.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha criticized the idea of a meeting in China without Ukraine’s input. “A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia could help end the war sooner. A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China, and the U.S. would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war,” Sybiha wrote in a post on X.
Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday, accusing Ukraine of hurting U.S. businesses by striking Russian diesel refineries. Trump earlier also withheld a sweeping sanctions package designed to further target the Russian economy.
But despite the friction, it is unclear whether China or the United States would accede to the Russian request. China, which is set to host APEC for the first time in 12 years in Shenzhen on Nov. 18 and 19, may balk at allowing a high-profile meeting with the potential to eclipse the 21-member forum. And Beijing is cautious over the possibility of provoking the European Union, one of Ukraine’s strongest backers and a crucial trading partner for China.
A trilateral meeting would be “more in the interests of Moscow than Washington or Beijing,” the person familiar with the Russian discussion said.
