Putin plans to raise ending Ukraine war with Trump and Xi, reports say
Photo: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin (Getty Images)
The US is working to arrange a meeting between Trump, Xi Jinping and Putin on the sidelines of next week's APEC summit in China. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed this with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, reports Reuters.
Rubio and Wang discussed Trump's trip to the APEC summit in China and Xi Jinping's visit to Florida for the G20 summit in December. According to the State Department, the two sides agreed that meetings at the leaders' level are important for advancing peace and denuclearization, including at a possible trilateral meeting with Russia.
China's Xinhua news agency described the call as "positive and constructive," but Beijing's statement made no mention of a trilateral summit or denuclearization.
Rubio told reporters that the US is working to arrange a meeting between Trump, Xi and Putin on the sidelines of APEC. Trump himself said he expects to meet with the leaders of China and Russia in Shenzhen to discuss ending the war with Iran and denuclearization.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Putin is proposing to use such a meeting to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Beijing remains cautious about trilateral talks on nuclear disarmament. In October, China's Foreign Ministry said the country's nuclear capabilities cannot be compared with those of the US and Russia, making it unfair and unrealistic to demand that Beijing participate in such negotiations at this stage.
Preparations for a possible meeting between the leaders have been underway for several weeks. Trump announced a visit to China and did not rule out a trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Putin. China's Foreign Ministry confirmed that teams from Beijing and Washington had begun preparations. The APEC summit, where the talks could take place, is scheduled for November 18-19 in Shenzhen.
Arranging the meeting has not been easy. According to The Wall Street Journal, disagreements have emerged between the US and China over the format: Beijing wants a strictly structured summit with prepared statements, while Trump's team favors a more free-flowing conversation between the leaders.
The final agenda has also not been determined. According to the South China Morning Post, the main topic could be the risks artificial intelligence poses to nuclear weapons, while the war in Ukraine could take a back seat.
