The leaders of the United States, China and Russia will hold a meeting next Thursday in Shenzhen, as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit. This is an unprecedented meeting among the three largest atomic powers, in which it is expected that the issue of nuclear non-proliferation and the crisis in Iran will be addressed primarily, while the conflict in Ukraine would be kept off the agenda.
The White House has confirmed that the meeting will focus on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, an issue on which U.S. President Donald Trump has hinted that it could lead to a new understanding between the countries with the largest nuclear arsenals in the world.
"The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will address the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. President Trump considers that this proliferation is very dangerous," one of the White House spokespersons, Olivia Wales, said.
According to White House sources cited by CNN, the U.S. delegation will "push" its Russian and Chinese counterparts to address the war in Iran and the increase in the cost of fuel after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, although it is practically taken for granted that the conflict in Ukraine will not be included in the discussions.
Later, the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, specified that the meeting will take place on Thursday, November 19, once agreement has been reached among the three capitals, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
"An agreement has been reached to hold a trilateral meeting between President Putin, President Xi and President Trump on the 19th. This meeting will take place in Shenzhen coinciding with the APEC summit," he said.
The meeting will take place in a context marked by the regulatory vacuum that emerged after the expiration in February 2026 of the New START treaty, the most recent bilateral agreement in force between Washington and Moscow for the reduction of strategic weapons, whose implementation had already been suspended by the Kremlin in 2023. To this is added Beijing's refusal to take part in trilateral disarmament talks while it continues to expand and modernize its own nuclear arsenal.