US President Donald Trump has said he expects an APEC trilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen next week, with ending the war in Iran and denuclearization on the agenda. Trump said he will travel to China for the summit, set for 18–19 November in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen.
FAKTA
- Trump said on Sunday, 8 November, that he expects to meet Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the APEC summit in Shenzhen on 18–19 November.
- The talks would cover denuclearization and efforts to end the war in Iran, which began on 28 February 2026 and has run for more than eight months without a ceasefire.
- Neither Beijing nor Moscow has publicly confirmed that a three-way meeting will take place. The Kremlin said on 21 October that a first-of-its-kind trilateral meeting was “being prepared”.
- Trump is due to meet Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, at the White House on Monday, as Qatar mediates between Washington and Tehran.
What Trump said
Trump spoke to reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday before flying back to Washington, and confirmed that he will attend the APEC summit in Shenzhen. “One of the meetings, I think, will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that’ll be interesting. We’re talking a lot of things, including denuclearization, but we’ll be talking a lot of things. We’re trying to end the war in Iran,” he said.
Trump added that the United States was “choking it off”, referring to pressure on Iran, and said a land blockade of Iran under the US operation known as Iron Gate was now in effect. In an interview with the CBS programme 60 Minutes, recorded on Friday, 6 November, he said he was “not looking to” further escalate the war in Iran.
What the APEC trilateral summit would cover
The two subjects Trump named were denuclearization and the war in Iran. Trump said in October that he was open to three-way arms control talks with Xi and Putin, focused on denuclearization, and the idea of a trilateral meeting has been discussed since September, when the Kremlin said Putin and Trump had talked about the possibility on the sidelines of APEC.
Russia’s war in Ukraine could also feature. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Putin has pitched using a trilateral meeting to discuss an end to that war. Trump told 60 Minutes that “I believe we’re very close to making a deal” to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which he said would result in a “little bit different shape Ukraine”, without offering specifics.
The skyline of Shenzhen, the southern Chinese tech hub hosting the APEC leaders’ summit on 18–19 November. (File photo)
No confirmation yet from Beijing or Moscow
Neither Beijing nor Moscow has publicly confirmed that a three-way meeting will take place, and no formal agenda has been announced. Beijing has said it is in contact with the relevant parties about a meeting involving the leaders of the three countries, but that nothing has been decided.
The Kremlin said on 21 October that a first-of-its-kind trilateral meeting was “being prepared”. If it goes ahead, a three-way summit of the leaders of the United States, China and Russia would be unprecedented.
The wider diplomacy
Trump is due to meet Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, at the White House on Monday. Qatar has played a central role as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran, conveying proposals and seeking to bridge differences over Iran’s nuclear programme and the terms for ending the conflict.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that negotiations with Iran had made little progress and that he did not see an imminent breakthrough. Iran on Monday defended its proposal to restart peace talks within two days, calling it the most reasonable offer on the table. The proposal would see the United States lift its blockade of Iranian ports and some sanctions and halt bombing, in return for Tehran stopping its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with talks on its nuclear programme to follow.
Trump said on Sunday that he was “highly unlikely” to order new strikes against Iran if negotiations made progress and produced a strong agreement, but warned that the United States had identified additional infrastructure targets, including bridges, should military action resume. APEC, founded in 1989, has 21 members, including Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, and its leaders meet annually. More world news is available on the Watan News World page.
