President Donald Trump said Sunday night that he expects to hold a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his upcoming trip to China, where he is set to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Donald J. Trump International Airport, Trump said the gathering would likely touch on denuclearization and on efforts to cut off Iran.
“Well, I’m going to be going to China. [Xi] just left here, and one of the meetings I think will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that’ll be interesting. We’ll talk a lot of things, including denuclearization, but we’ll be talking a lot of things,” Trump said.
Trump also pointed to his administration’s pressure campaign on Tehran. “We’re trying to end the war in Iran, and we’re doing well because… all we have to do — we’re choking it off. We have Operation Iron Gate that just went into effect. That means nothing comes in by land, and as you know, the naval blockade, nothing comes in by water. So we have it very well blocked off,” he said.
The prospect of a three-way meeting was first signaled last week by the Kremlin, which said “work is underway” to arrange talks between Trump, Putin and Xi on the sidelines of the APEC summit. The Financial Times reported that American, Chinese and Russian officials had been discussing what would be the first-ever meeting of the three leaders together.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the discussions at a press conference, saying there was a “general understanding among the participants of this possible meeting that it would be worthwhile and extremely useful.”
If it goes forward, the meeting would mark the fourth in-person encounter between Trump and Xi, and the second between Trump and Putin, since Trump’s second term began in January 2025.
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