Trump open to three-way meeting with Xi and Putin

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he is open to a three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss nuclear weapons, and the Kremlin said the leaders could meet next month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China.

No meeting has been scheduled. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit is set for Nov. 18 and 19 in Shenzhen, according to the Wall Street Journal, as relayed by TRT World.

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Oct. 19, in remarks reported by Reuters. “We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization,” he said. “If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it.”

Reuters reported that the Kremlin had said earlier the same day that the three leaders could meet at the APEC summit and that the idea had come up in contacts between the sides.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing diplomatic sources, that Putin proposed a trilateral meeting during an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump, with the war in Ukraine on the agenda. Those accounts rest on anonymous sources and have not been independently confirmed by the White House.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that preliminary contacts are under way. “There is no clear understanding yet regarding the meeting itself or its potential agenda,” Peskov said, according to the Journal’s report.

The Journal also reported that Chinese officials indicated they would not object if Washington agreed, and that a senior U.S. official said Trump had not formally committed but could be receptive. China has not publicly confirmed that position in the reporting reviewed by Canada News Media.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described a roughly 90-minute Putin-Trump call on Saturday as “very substantive,” according to reporting by ETV Bharat. Ushakov said no dates had been set for an in-person meeting, but that the two could meet at APEC if both attend.

On Oct. 18, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he is negotiating for peace and does not want to “drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” He added: “Great progress is being made.”

The Journal linked the proposal to recent U.S.-Russia dealings, including an arrangement reported to allow U.S. imports of Russian diesel and Trump’s decision to pause new congressional sanctions on Moscow. European leaders criticized the diesel arrangement, as we reported in EU leaders back Zelenskyy as Trump rift widens over diesel. Washington also waived 100 per cent tariffs on some top buyers of Russian oil, as we covered in Trump waives 100% tariffs on top buyers of Russian oil.

For Canada, which is an APEC member economy and a backer of Ukraine, the outcome matters at a distance. A meeting between the three leaders would take place without Ottawa, on arms control and, according to the Journal, the war in Ukraine. Canada News Media found no comment from the federal government on the proposal. Prime Minister Mark Carney met Xi on the sidelines of last year’s APEC summit in South Korea, as we reported in Carney meets Xi on margins of APEC in South Korea.

What happens next depends on whether the three leaders confirm they will attend. The Kremlin and the White House have not announced a date, and the Nov. 18 and 19 summit is the only occasion named so far.

Via Reuters, the Wall Street Journal (as relayed by TRT World and ETV Bharat).

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