Trump to raise Iran, not Ukraine, at Shenzhen meeting with Xi and Putin

A trilateral on the APEC sidelines

The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will meet in Shenzhen, in southern China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Thursday, 19 November 2026. Beijing and Moscow had not confirmed the meeting when the reports were published, although it had been discussed for weeks. The three leaders are heads of nuclear-armed states, and the meeting would mark a new stage in Putin's return to the international stage, a year and a half after his meeting with Trump in Alaska.

Iran on the agenda, Ukraine off it

A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Trump intends to raise the war in Iran during the trilateral. Speaking to reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said one of his meetings would be with Putin and Xi, and that the talks would cover many topics, including denuclearization, as he tries to end the war in Iran. The same official said Washington is following a completely separate track in negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, and that Beijing is not really part of that process, so raising Ukraine did not seem appropriate. The line is likely to reassure Kyiv and its Western partners, who had feared Ukraine would be on the table after US-mediated Russo-Ukrainian talks in Abu Dhabi. Washington said those talks secured Moscow's consent to European participation in the negotiations.

Nuclear arms and the European seat

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the president would raise, among other issues, reducing the number of nuclear weapons worldwide, and that he considers their spread extremely dangerous. European leaders had already settled their own representation at an informal summit in Dublin on Friday, 13 November. They decided to be represented by five countries, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland and Italy, plus EU representatives. The European side's role in the Shenzhen meeting itself is not described in the reports.

Schedule and travel

Trump will travel to the Philippines on Tuesday, 17 November, for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before continuing to China. On the afternoon of Thursday, 19 November, he is scheduled for a private meeting and working lunch with Xi, the fourth between the two since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. No private meeting with Putin is planned. Elon Musk will accompany Trump but will not take part in the trilateral meeting. A separate US official said the recent resignation of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is not expected to have a significant impact on the trip.

Unconfirmed details

The reports so far rest on White House statements and remarks by an anonymous US official, not on confirmation from Beijing or Moscow. The sources give the day of the trilateral meeting but no time. No joint statement from the three leaders has been reported. Trump has spoken of reducing nuclear proliferation and of ending the war in Iran, but no outcome document has been released.