Trump, Xi and Putin to Meet in Shenzhen on November 19

The White House confirmed on Friday, November 13, that the presidents of the United States, China and Russia, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, will hold their first three-way meeting on Thursday, November 19, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. The agenda covers nuclear arsenals, the war in Iran and energy prices, issues that also touch Europe, and with it Serbia.

What has been confirmed, and where does the meeting take place?

The meeting is set for the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which runs in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19 and brings together 21 economies. Washington confirmed the same day that Trump will attend the summit.

According to the White House, the main topic is reducing nuclear weapons. White House press secretary Olivia Wells told reporters:

“The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss reducing nuclear weapons around the world.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called “a meeting of the leaders of countries such as Russia, China and the United States highly significant.” He added that any agreement reached in Shenzhen cannot be imposed on others.

Why are nuclear arsenals the main topic?

New START, the last nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia, expired in February 2026. Trump turned down a Russian offer to extend it for another year and asked for a “new, improved and modernized” deal that also includes Beijing.

The numbers explain why China is hesitant. According to Pentagon estimates, Beijing has more than 600 warheads, while the US and Russia each have more than 5,000. China’s Foreign Ministry said last month that it would be “neither fair, nor reasonable, nor realistic” to ask China to join so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament talks at this stage.

American officials themselves are not promising much. An unnamed senior Trump administration official told reporters that no agreement is expected, and described the meeting as “the beginning, hopefully, of a conversation.”

Will Ukraine be discussed?

According to the American side, it will not. The same official said Trump will discuss the war with Iran with Xi and Putin, but not the war in Ukraine. The official explained:

“China is not actually part of that process, so it doesn’t seem appropriate to have a discussion about Ukraine there.”

Washington is running separate peace talks: US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Ukraine and Russia this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nonetheless fears that Ukraine could be negotiated over at the meeting without Kyiv.

That fear feeds comparisons with Yalta in 1945. Pyotr Tolstoy, a Russian Duma official, mentioned a “new Yalta,” and Peskov rejected the comparison.

What is behind the meeting?

According to the Associated Press, Trump has warmed to Xi since last year’s truce in the trade war, despite differences over the war in Iran. He has met Putin in person seven times so far, most recently in Alaska in August 2025. He has spoken with Xi eight times, including during Xi’s state visit to Washington in September. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since Xi became president in 2013, according to the same source.

Beijing is already pressing for an end to the war in Iran, which the US and Israel launched on February 28, because it threatens China’s energy supply: the Strait of Hormuz has been closed for more than 100 days, and a third of China’s crude oil imports passed through it before the war.

Analysts expect more symbolism than results. Simon Mabon, professor of international politics at Lancaster University, told Al Jazeera:

“I think it will be more performative, Donald Trump playing the global statesman rather than the peacemaker.”

The Shenzhen meeting is set for November 19, and a US official says no agreement is expected.