Trump Wants Nuclear Talks With Putin and Xi in China – Beijing Isn’t Biting

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A First-of-Its-Kind Meeting

The three leaders have met one-on-one before, but never all together. That is about to change. The White House confirmed on Friday that the meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Trump leaves on Monday for a four-day Asia trip that also includes a stop in the Philippines. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said he will raise the global reduction of nuclear weapons, which he considers a grave danger.

Elon Musk will travel with Trump but will not attend the meeting, according to a senior administration official.

Why Nuclear Weapons, and Why Now?

The timing matters. The last major US-Russian arms control deal, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), expired earlier this year. For the first time in decades, the two largest nuclear powers are not bound by a formal limit on their long-range arsenals.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia holds the most stored warheads, followed by the United States and then China. Washington argues that any serious future arrangement must include Beijing.

A senior US official said the administration does not expect a deal this time. He described the talks as a possible start to a longer conversation and said it was time for China to take part in serious discussions on the topic.

Beijing's Cold Shoulder

China is the host of the APEC summit, and it wants the focus on trade and business. Trump's insistence on arms control has irritated Beijing, Reuters reports.

China's position is not new. For years it has said that the United States and Russia, with their far larger arsenals, should negotiate first. Last month the Chinese Foreign Ministry went further. It called it neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join three-way disarmament talks at this stage, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Critics see a pattern. Beijing has little to say about the size or goals of its military buildup, and it resists the kind of inspections and data sharing that past US-Russian treaties relied on. The Chinese government offers no public detail on its warhead numbers. It has also not confirmed that it will engage on the issue in Shenzhen.

What Is Not on the Agenda

Trump is also expected to raise the US-Israeli war against Iran. He is not expected to bring up Russia's war in Ukraine, the official said, because China is not part of the current US-Russia talks on that subject. No one-on-one meeting with Putin is planned, and Ukraine's access to satellite communications is not on the list. A meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not expected either.

Xi himself appears to share this view. According to German media reports cited by Al Jazeera, Xi told Germany's president that the Ukraine war is a European matter, and that Europeans must be at the table.

Photo Op or Turning Point?

Analysts are split. Moscow-based commentator Alexander Bratersky told Al Jazeera that the meeting alone would be a win for Putin, because it shows him among the leaders shaping world affairs. He said that if nothing concrete follows by Christmas, it will have been only a photo opportunity.

Inderjeet Parmar, a professor of international politics in London, said Trump wants to present himself as a dealmaker, even if the results are mostly symbolic. He also warned that such great-power diplomacy risks sidelining America's allies.

Supporters of the president's approach see it differently. Meeting both rivals face to face, they argue, is exactly how to test whether Beijing and Moscow are serious. It also keeps nuclear risk on the agenda while the old treaty framework is gone.

Outlook

The Shenzhen meeting falls within the APEC leaders' meeting on November 18–19. A further encounter between Trump and Xi is possible at the G20 summit in Miami in December. Whether Beijing will move from refusing to talk to joining a real discussion on nuclear weapons will be the main question to watch.

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Sources

1. Reuters – "Trump to raise nuclear-arms cuts with Putin, Xi on Thursday, White House says" (Nov 14, 2026): https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-meet-putin-xi-china-white-house-says-2026-11-14/
2. Al Jazeera – "What a Trump-Xi-Putin summit could mean – and what it wouldn't" (Nov 6, 2026): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/6/what-a-trump-xi-putin-summit-would-mean-and-what-it-wouldnt
3. The Jerusalem Post – "Trump-Xi-Putin to discuss Iran, nuclear arms in trilateral summit in China": https://www.jpost.com/international/article-914839
4. Breitbart – "Kremlin Says Arrangements Underway for Trump-Putin-Xi Meeting in November" (Nov 3, 2026): https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2026/11/03/kremlin-says-arrangements-underway-for-trump-putin-xi-meeting-in-november/

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