The U.S. President Donald Trump declared this Monday that he is willing to participate in a trilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin focused on nuclear weapons, a meeting that could take place as soon as next month, according to Reuters.
"We would meet to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization. We would schedule a meeting focused on denuclearization, and that is very positive for the world," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "If President Xi wants to do it, he will. I'm sure we would also discuss other matters, such as trade."
The possible meeting would take place alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled for November 18 and 19 in Shenzhen, China. Trump has already confirmed his attendance at the forum, which would mark his second trip to China in 2026 and his third meeting with Xi during that same period.
The White House has been discussing internally for weeks the possibility of a trilateral meeting focused on denuclearization, according to a source familiar with the matter cited by Reuters. The three leaders have met separately on various occasions, but they have never held formal joint discussions.
The Kremlin confirmed this Monday that the topic arose in prior conversations. The spokesperson Dmitri Peskov clarified, however, that "no one discussed or presented specific proposals or agreements, whether about the meeting itself or about the potential agenda and content of that meeting."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Putin proposed to take advantage of that meeting to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine on terms favorable to Moscow, a suggestion that is said to have arisen during a phone call with Trump on October 9.
China, for its part, has not publicly confirmed Xi's participation in any trilateral summit. The Chinese foreign ministry stated last week that its nuclear arsenal "is not on the same level as that of the U.S. and Russia" and that it would be "neither fair, nor reasonable, nor realistic" to ask it to join trilateral disarmament negotiations at this stage.
The announcement comes at a time of accelerated rapprochement between Washington and Moscow. Trump signed a executive order that suspends major sanctions against Russia last Friday, and days earlier had announced a Russian diesel deal with Putin. Both measures have drawn criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who warned that these concessions would prolong the war.
Trump downplayed Ukraine's role in potential negotiations. "I would do it, not so much for Ukraine, because Russia, frankly, has done well in Ukraine," he stated, adding that "Zelensky is not helping much" and that "it's time for someone else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine."
In the early hours of this Monday, Russia launched one of its most extensive airstrikes in months against Ukrainian territory, leaving over half a million homes without electricity and causing ten fatalities.
The nuclear context surrounding the proposal is critical: the New START treaty —the last strategic arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia— expired in February 2026, leaving both powers without legally binding limits on their arsenals for the first time in over fifty years. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia has the largest number of stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China.
Last week, Trump had already suggested that he saw a potential denuclearization agreement with Russia and China as possible, although he clarified that "it doesn’t have to be this year." The possible trilateral summit at APEC would represent, if realized, one of the most ambitious diplomatic initiatives of his second term.
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