Beijing for all: China supports holding a meeting between Putin, Xi and Trump
Negotiations between the leaders of China, Russia and the United States at the APEC summit are important for the formation of a multipolar world, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told Izvestia. According to him, a trilateral meeting can be "very useful." The Kremlin has confirmed that Vladimir Putin plans to attend the organization's summit, which will be held in November in Shenzhen. Donald Trump is also going to the forum. According to experts, the leaders, if such an opportunity arises, will discuss building a new security system, as well as regional issues such as the Ukrainian conflict and the Taiwan crisis.
Expectations from the trilateral meeting
On November 18-19, 2026, the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit will be held in Shenzhen, China. The participants plan to discuss AI regulation rules, supply stability amid trade disputes, and the economic integration of the region. However, the key event of the forum may be a meeting between Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui, in an interview with Izvestia, praised the potential effectiveness of such negotiations.
— I think it's very useful. Because if we can organize such a trilateral meeting, it will be very favorable for the development and formation of a multipolar world. Because Russia, America and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council, they are world powers. The future of this world depends on us," the diplomat stressed.
According to him, Moscow, Beijing and Washington should jointly coordinate any problems in the economy and security, since no state is capable of solving global issues alone.
— All countries should take from us, China and Russia, an example of how to build relations between neighboring states, between large states. And we will work together to contribute to the development of the economy, the global economy, and the maintenance of world peace and stability," Zhang concluded.
All three sides are working on the idea of negotiations, although official Beijing is still maintaining diplomatic restraint. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun, the ministry does not yet have specific information about the leaders' meeting. At the same time, during a recent official meeting with the Chinese president at the White House, Trump personally confirmed his intention to attend the APEC summit and stressed that the parties would hold large-scale negotiations.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan to the White House in Washington.
Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said earlier that the parties had discussed the idea of organizing such a meeting. At the same time, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian leader, although he confirmed Putin's plans to attend the summit, clarified that there were no final agreements on the trilateral format yet. As the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large Marat Berdyev, who serves as Russia's senior official at APEC, previously told Izvestia, in practical terms, the conversation between the three leaders "is quite feasible, since three leaders of the leading powers are expected at the specified site."
In geopolitics, this format is called a large strategic triangle. The idea of such interaction was formulated in the USA back in the 1970s: it is designed to establish a dialogue between the three main world forces to jointly solve global problems. The meeting of the leaders at the APEC summit allows us to directly use this format in order to coordinate positions. In this system, no one can act in isolation. The step of any two participants automatically changes the balance of power, forcing the third to adjust to the new conditions.
At the same time, Western sanctions pressure on Russia and the US trade wars against China have pushed Moscow and Beijing towards a rapid rapprochement. The formula of the American diplomat Henry Kissinger broke down: now the Russian Federation and China have built close relations (Xi called them a partnership of a new era), and the United States is opposing both players at the same time. During his first term as president, Trump stated that he considered it a mistake for American diplomacy to try to "push Russia into the arms of China." At the same time, former Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov warned Moscow during his lifetime against forming an alliance with Beijing against Washington, urging it to maintain its role as an independent center.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a tea party at the meeting at the People's Assembly House in Beijing.
What can the leaders of the three states discuss?
If the meeting of the three leaders takes place, the main issue will be the transformation of the global security system and the global order as a whole, believes Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to him, Russia, China and the United States remain the three key players in the world. It is impossible to resolve any crisis without their participation, which even American analysts admit.
Blokhin recalled that during the Cold War, the parties concluded many agreements that remained relevant in the post-Soviet years. However, by now the United States has withdrawn from a number of agreements: the ABM, Open Skies and Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaties. Also in February 2026, the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START Treaty) expired. In fact, the world now lives without clear rules of confrontation, therefore, in the conditions of global turbulence, the leaders need to agree on them anew, the expert emphasized.
The issue of a new START is particularly urgent. The main contradiction lies in the unwillingness of the United States to sign the document without China's participation. Beijing retorts: Moscow and Washington own 90% of the world's nuclear arsenals, so China sees no point in joining the treaty until its reserves are equal to those of the United States and Russia. And Moscow proposed to include the nuclear capabilities of France and Great Britain in the agreement. As a result, the situation has reached an impasse, which the leaders can find a way out of during a trilateral meeting.
However, Blokhin believes that breakthroughs should not be expected from these negotiations. In his opinion, the parties should delineate spheres of influence by analogy with the Yalta Conference, but in the current reality this will not happen. The West will definitely not allow Russia and China to consolidate separate territories or limit their own influence. In the 1940s, such an agreement became possible due to the victory of the USSR over the Third Reich, against which the West's position looked weak. There are no such clear-cut victories now. Washington still sees itself from a position of strength, so it will continue to build a balance in such a way as to prevent excessive strengthening of Moscow and Beijing.
If a trilateral dialogue becomes possible, then the main achievement will be the very fact of such a meeting, says Ekaterina Zaklyazminskaya, a leading researcher at the Center for World Politics and Strategic Analysis of the ICSA RAS. According to her, the summit can be the first step towards resolving many political disputes. At the same time, the meeting itself develops the idea of the "big two" of the USA and China. Xi Jinping has repeatedly put Beijing's ambitions on a par with Washington's, in fact equating the revival of Great China with Trump's idea of "Make America Great Again." However, the format of the "big two" is not viable due to the growing influence of Russia.
The leaders can also discuss regional conflicts. According to Blokhin, the Ukrainian issue will certainly be raised at the meeting. China may offer its mediation services, but the United States is likely to be skeptical about this initiative. The White House will perceive China's active participation in the peace process as its own surrender.
It is also impossible to find a compromise on Taiwan that would suit all three sides, Zaklyazminskaya added. The situation around the island remains part of the long-term U.S. strategy to contain China. Because of this, the parties are unlikely to find a mutually acceptable solution and will only be able to maintain the status quo at most. Nevertheless, in order to prevent escalation, the meeting participants may come to certain unspoken agreements.
The potential summit of the three nuclear powers is attracting attention, since it is Moscow, Beijing and Washington that today bear the main responsibility for the future of the world order and are able to lay the foundation for a new global security architecture. The decisions of these three determine the vectors of development of international relations for decades to come. However, a deep crisis of trust and the polar geopolitical interests of the leaders can limit the outcome of potential negotiations.
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