US President Donald Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday, November 19, 2026, for the first-ever trilateral meeting of the three leaders, the White House said on Friday, November 13.
The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzhen. Trump will use the meeting to raise the reduction of nuclear weapons around the world, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told reporters.
“He will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous,” Wales said.
A senior Trump administration official cautioned that no agreement is expected from the meeting, describing it as the start of a longer conversation on arms control. “We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement,” the official said. “This is the beginning of hopefully a conversation that can be productive going forward.”
China has long resisted three-way talks on its nuclear programme, arguing that the United States and Russia, which hold the largest arsenals, should talk directly. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia has the most stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the last major nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, expired earlier this year.
Trump will also raise the US-Israeli war against Iran at the meeting, the official said, but is not expected to raise Russia’s war in Ukraine, which officials said is being handled on a separate track. He is not expected to hold a one-on-one meeting with Putin.
The meeting will come at the end of Trump’s four-day trip to Asia, which begins on Monday, November 16, and also includes a stop in the Philippines, where he is scheduled to meet Quad leaders and sign a trade agreement with Thailand. Elon Musk is travelling with Trump on the trip but will not attend the meeting with Xi and Putin, according to the official. Trump is also not expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the trip.
Source: Reuters — https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-meet-putin-xi-china-white-house-says-2026-11-14/
