Washington: US President Donald Trump will hold his first ever trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in China next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Shenzhen.
The White House confirmed on Friday that the meeting will take place.
According to US officials, Trump will want to discuss reducing nuclear weapons.
Trump to Discuss Reducing Nuclear Weapons, Iran
“Among other things, the president will discuss with the Chinese President Xi and President Putin the need to reduce nuclear weapons,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters.
“The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world. This proliferation, President Trump believes, is very dangerous.” He feels that it’s very dangerous that we’ve got this proliferation of nuclear weapons.
However, officials said they were not expecting any agreement to come out of the meeting. A senior administration official said it was the start of high level talks between the three nations.
“This is really just the start of discussions,” the official said.
It is also expected that Trump will discuss Iran with Xi and Putin. A senior US official said the American President wanted to bring up the topic.
However, Trump is not planning to discuss Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Trump and Xi Will Meet Separately Prior to Trilateral Talks
Trump and Xi will meet in a separate bilateral meeting prior to the trilateral meeting with Putin.
There are no plans for a bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin.
Trump will depart Washington on Monday and arrive in Manila on Tuesday where he will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. During his visit to the Philippines, Trump is expected to attend peace and security discussions in the Indo-Pacific region and have bilateral meetings with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
After this, Trump will travel to Shenzhen, China to attend the APEC Summit. He will attend a leaders dinner and a number of multilateral meetings.
The trilateral meeting with Xi will be the last meeting of Trump’s Asia tour.
Elon Musk to Join Trump in China
Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX will join Trump on his visit to China. However, officials confirmed that Musk will not attend the meeting with Trump, Xi and Putin.
Officials also said that the controversy surrounding former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and the allegations surrounding a woman suspected to have ties to Chinese intelligence will not be discussed during Trump’s visit.
“We don’t really think it should have anything to do with the trip,” a senior US official said.
Washington is also not planning to discuss export controls on sensitive chip tech during the visit, which was at the centre of the Nvidia controversy.
“The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip.” They’re national security issues so they’re dealt with internally here, a second senior US official said.
“We wouldn’t expect it to be an issue.”