In the first, Trump will hold a historic trilateral meeting with Xi, Putin in China next week | Everything you need to know | Today’s news
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold the first-ever trilateral meeting between the leaders of IT, Russia and China at a summit in Shenzhen next week, the White House said on Friday.
Trump wants to talk about reducing nuclear arsenals at Thursday’s trilateral talks and is also set to raise his war on Iran — but is not expected to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, US officials said.
The three leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
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“The president has made it clear that he will discuss limiting nuclear weapons in the world, among other topics. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous,” Wales said.
One of the major conflicts that will dominate Trump’s second term will emerge, but the other will not, US officials said.
“I think the president intends to talk about Iran in a trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,” a senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a phone call.
Washington has a “completely different track” of talks with Kiev and Moscow aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the official added, referring to talks held by US envoys with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent days.
“China is not really part of this trip, so it doesn’t seem appropriate to have a discussion there about Ukraine,” the official added.
Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk will accompany Trump on his trip to China but will not attend the meeting with Xi and Putin, officials said.
Trump will also hold a bilateral working lunch and meeting with the Chinese president on Thursday – their fourth meeting since the US president returned to power last year.
But Trump does not plan to have a separate one-on-one fight with Putin.
Among other topics, the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over the affair with an alleged Chinese spy is not expected to come up in Trump’s meetings with Xi, officials said.
“The situation with Nvidia shouldn’t really have any impact on the journey,” said a second senior US official.
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The United States also had no plans to discuss export controls on the sensitive chip technology at the heart of the Nvidia scandal.
“We’re not negotiating U.S. export controls. Those are national security matters that we’re developing in the administration … and we don’t expect that to figure at all in any of our conversations with the Chinese while we’re there,” the second official said.
Trump will leave Washington on Monday and arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit before heading to Shenzhen.
