President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to hold their first three-way meeting next week in Shenzhen, China, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit. The White House has confirmed Trump’s attendance at the summit and said the leaders are expected to discuss nuclear weapons.
The APEC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 18-19. A White House spokesperson said the president believes nuclear proliferation presents a serious danger and intends to raise the reduction of nuclear weapons with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.
“The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous.”
Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, made the comments to reporters.
China has not confirmed the meeting
China has not formally confirmed that the three leaders will meet. Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said earlier this month that Beijing was communicating with the relevant parties about a possible meeting. A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington said the embassy had no information to release at that time.
The proposed discussion comes after the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the 2010 agreement that limited the strategic nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia. The treaty lapsed in February. Trump rejected a Russian proposal to extend it and instead called for a new agreement that would include China.
Beijing has rejected joining trilateral nuclear arms-control negotiations for now. China’s Foreign Ministry said last month that asking China to participate at this stage would not be fair, reasonable or realistic. Beijing has been reluctant to enter negotiations while its nuclear arsenal remains smaller than those of the United States and Russia.
- The APEC leaders’ summit is set for Nov. 18-19 in Shenzhen, China.
- The White House says Trump plans to discuss reducing nuclear weapons.
- New START, which limited U.S. and Russian strategic arsenals, expired in February.
Limits of the nuclear discussion
Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank, has said China is concerned that arms-control negotiations could leave it permanently behind the United States and Russia. China has argued that it should not be asked to accept limits before its arsenal is closer to parity with the two larger nuclear powers.
A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that the United States does not expect the meeting to produce an agreement on nuclear issues. The official said, however, that China should begin engaging in discussions about the subject. The planned meeting would therefore take place amid disagreement over whether Beijing should join future arms-control negotiations and what any replacement for New START should include.
