President Donald Trump will travel to Shenzhen next Thursday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to participate in a first-of-its-kind trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the White House.
The upcoming gathering brings together the heads of the world’s three largest nuclear powers for the first time on the sidelines of the trade-focused APEC conference. “The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters in a telephone briefing.
U.S. officials have expressed mounting concern over China’s steady buildup of its nuclear arsenal, maintaining secretive facilities that put Beijing on track to hold 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, according to administration estimates.
That rapid production pace follows the February expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the last remaining arms control pact between the U.S. and Russia. Russia has the most stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Senior administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss travel plans said Trump is prepared to raise the difficult topic of Beijing’s nuclear stockpile with Xi. At the same time, officials downplayed expectations for an immediate breakthrough at the Shenzhen gathering, Reuters reported.
In addition to nuclear arms reductions, Trump will raise the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran during the trilateral talks, according to administration officials.
The discussions are not expected to cover Russia’s war in Ukraine, as The Associated Press noted that China is not part of the diplomatic track dealing with Kyiv. Putin, Trump and Xi may also discuss the war in Iran and North Korea, according to White House sources.
“I think the key for Putin was that this was very much about signaling a desire to talk to the president and talk to Chairman Xi in a way that suggests that they're making decisions on Ukraine, which obviously the Ukrainians and the Europeans don't like,” said Edgard Kagan, a former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump departs on Monday for a four-day trip to Asia. His itinerary begins with a stop at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Manila before he travels to Shenzhen for the APEC forum. Billionaire Elon Musk is joining Trump on the trip to China but will not participate in the trilateral meeting, officials confirmed.
