US President Donald Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Chinese city of Shenzhen next Thursday for trilateral talks expected to focus on nuclear disarmament and the war in Iran, the White House has announced. The meeting, scheduled on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, will not include discussions on the war in Ukraine, according to a senior US administration official.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said on Friday that Trump had made clear his intention to discuss reducing nuclear weapons worldwide with the Russian and Chinese leaders. The meeting will bring together the three heads of state at a time of continuing international tensions over Iran and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
A senior US official, speaking to journalists during a telephone briefing on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Iran would also feature in the discussions. However, the official indicated that Trump was not expected to raise the Ukraine conflict, arguing that Washington was pursuing a separate diplomatic process involving Kyiv and Moscow.
“I think the president does indeed intend to discuss Iran at the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,” the official said.
On Ukraine, the official said China was not directly involved in the negotiations between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow, making it inappropriate to include the issue in the three-way discussions. “China is not really part of that negotiating track, so it does not seem appropriate to discuss the Ukraine issue there,” the official said.
The planned meeting has attracted attention amid concerns that the three leaders could seek to negotiate arrangements over their respective spheres of influence. Trump has repeatedly expressed positions favourable to Russia during the Ukraine war and criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. China, meanwhile, describes its position on the conflict as neutral, although Kyiv and Western governments accuse Beijing of providing significant support to Russia’s war effort.
The announcement has also prompted concern among European leaders about the implications of Trump’s engagement with Putin, particularly following their previous meeting in Alaska in August 2025.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Trump to maintain close coordination with European allies and continue supporting Ukraine ahead of the planned encounter with the Russian president. Speaking on Friday at a meeting of European Union heads of state and government in Dublin, Merz said some European leaders feared the China meeting could become another version of what he described as an “Anchorage moment”.
During their August 2025 meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, Trump welcomed Putin with a handshake on a military airfield and arranged a red carpet reception in honour of the Russian president. The encounter drew criticism from those who argued that Trump had given Putin an international platform despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting Western diplomatic isolation of the Kremlin.
Merz said European governments wanted Washington to remain aligned with its European partners and Ukraine rather than make decisions that could undermine their shared diplomatic position.
“I therefore want to make our message to the United States very clear once again: Please, no surprises. Stay on Team Europe and on Team Ukraine, and let us work together for a genuine peace in Ukraine,” Merz said.
He added that achieving peace in Ukraine remained the shared objective of European governments and that they intended to maintain that position.
