Trump open to three-way summit with Putin and Xi, but says the focus would be nuclear arms
The idea came up as Putin reportedly proposed meeting at next month's APEC summit to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a plan that would leave out Kyiv.
President Donald Trump said Monday he would be open to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said the talks would be mainly about nuclear weapons and not the war in Ukraine.
"We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons, denuclearization," Trump told reporters at the White House, Politico reported. "If President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it." He added that he was sure trade and other topics would also come up.
Trump's comments followed a Wall Street Journal report, cited by both jpost.com and illawarramercury.com.au, that Putin had proposed the three leaders meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, set for November 18 and 19. According to jpost.com, citing the Journal, Putin wanted the talks to cover ending the Russia-Ukraine war and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would not take part. The Journal reported that Putin first raised the idea in an October 9 call with Trump, the same call in which the two agreed on a deal for Russian diesel.
The sources tell the story in different ways. jpost.com describes the summit as Putin's proposal. illawarramercury.com.au, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the White House had been discussing a meeting on denuclearisation for weeks, and that Putin later pitched using it to negotiate an end to the war "in a manner that would favour Moscow," citing the Journal.
Asked about Ukraine, Trump said "Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine," according to Politico. He also said it was time "for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine," and illawarramercury.com.au reported him saying Zelensky "is not helping matters much."
The meeting would matter because the three leaders have met separately but never held formal talks together, illawarramercury.com.au reported. The outlet said a three-way meeting could alarm allies from Europe to Asia, but that a deal could also lower global tensions and bind the three countries with the largest nuclear stockpiles. jpost.com, citing the Journal, said leaving Zelensky out would be expected to alarm many European countries.
The talk of a summit comes as Trump has waived sanctions on Russia and announced the diesel deal. Illawarramercury.com.au reported that a broad Russian air attack overnight cut power to more than half a million households in Ukraine and that ten people were reported killed.
Much is still unsettled. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Journal there is "no clear understanding yet regarding the meeting itself or its potential agenda," jpost.com reported. A senior US official told the Journal that Trump had not agreed to the meeting. China's position is also unclear: according to jpost.com, Chinese officials worry the meeting could overshadow China's role at APEC, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington had not commented.
