Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a meeting with President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, people familiar with the Russian and Chinese discussions said.
Putin raised the possibility of meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzhen, China, next month, according to a person familiar with the Russian conversation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
The Chinese side has reached out to “U.S. counterparts” for clarity about the desire for such a meeting, said an Asian diplomat familiar with Chinese discussions on the matter and who likewise spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The White House, Kremlin and Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to requests for comment on a potential meeting. The proposal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Any discussions between Washington, Moscow and Beijing could turn to the matter of the war in Ukraine, without the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The timing of the request — amid a deadly escalation in the war as both sides target a widening array of infrastructure — could mean Putin is seeking to take advantage of an apparent fraying of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.
On Sunday, Zelensky publicly accused the White House of restricting Kyiv’s access to Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service critical for Ukrainian military operations, without warning. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied doing so.
Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday, accusing Ukraine of hurting U.S. businesses by striking Russian diesel refineries. Trump earlier also withheld a sweeping sanctions package designed to further target the Russian economy.
But despite the friction, it is unclear whether China or the United States would accede to the Russian request. China, which is set to host APEC for the first time in 12 years in Shenzhen on Nov. 18 and 19, may balk at allowing a high-profile meeting with the potential to eclipse the 21-member forum. And Beijing is cautious over the possibility of provoking the European Union, one of Ukraine’s strongest backers and a crucial trading partner for China.
A trilateral meeting would be “more in the interests of Moscow than Washington or Beijing,” the person familiar with the Russian discussion said.
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