Trump Xi Putin meeting: White House confirms 19 November talks in China

The White House confirmed on Friday, 13 November, that Donald Trump will sit down with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday, 19 November. When we first wrote about this idea on 20 October, it was a Russian proposal about Ukraine. Now it is on Trump’s official schedule, and Ukraine has been dropped from it: the talks will be about nuclear weapons and the war in Iran.

It will be the first meeting ever held between the leaders of the US, China and Russia together, the three biggest nuclear powers. Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales confirmed it to The Jerusalem Post, and senior officials briefed reporters on Friday evening, ABC News reported.

When and where is the meeting?

The meeting is on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which China is hosting in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November. Trump leaves Washington on Monday, 16 November, and goes first to Manila for meetings with the Quad leaders (the US, Japan, India and Australia), a US-ASEAN summit and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

On Thursday he attends the APEC leaders’ session in the morning, then holds a bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi. The three-way talk is the last event of the trip. No separate Trump-Putin meeting is planned, officials said.

What will they discuss?

Nuclear weapons. New START, the last treaty capping US and Russian nuclear arms, expired in February. Trump turned down Russia’s offer to extend it by a year and wants a new deal that includes China, AP reported. The Pentagon estimates China has more than 600 warheads, while the US and Russia each have more than 5,000. One official said it was time for China to “step up” to the “adult table”.

Iran. “I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting,” a senior official said. Russia and China both keep ties with Tehran. Officials gave no detail on what Trump will ask of them.

Not Ukraine. US officials said Ukraine is handled on a separate track with Russia that China is not part of.

Nobody is promising a breakthrough. The administration does “not expect to get to any kind of agreement”, an official said, calling it “the entry point, the first conversation”. Sun Yun of the Stimson Center told Euronews: “China wants the image but not the costs.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has brushed aside comparisons with the 1945 Yalta conference, saying deals made in Shenzhen could not be imposed on others.

Why it matters for Pakistan

China is Pakistan’s closest partner, and Iran is our neighbour. Islamabad hosted US-Iran talks led by Vice President JD Vance in April, Al Jazeera noted. That track has since stalled: Trump wrote on Friday, “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” and asked Vance to focus on domestic matters. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says Tehran has sent a seven-condition ceasefire plan through Qatar and “the ball is now in the American court”.

If the three powers find even a common line on Iran, it could ease pressure on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely shut since March. That is the route for much of the oil Pakistan imports, and the reason petrol prices here swing with every headline from the Gulf.

Watch for the readout after the Xi lunch on Thursday afternoon, Shenzhen time, which is three hours ahead of Pakistan. China, the host, had not publicly spelled out its view of the three-way format by Saturday morning.