China has said it is in contact over a possible summit between President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, a day after the Kremlin said work was under way to arrange the meeting.
“China is maintaining communication with relevant parties on a meeting of the heads of state of China, Russia and the United States,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.
According to the Beijing-based Global Times, Mao was responding to a Financial Times report that officials from the three countries were discussing a meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, southeastern China, on November 18–19. Xi is due to host leaders and representatives from APEC’s 21 member economies.
“Work is under way on organising such a meeting,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Times.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that China had yet to decide whether to proceed. It said it was unclear whether officials from all three countries were speaking together or whether Beijing was holding separate talks with Washington and Moscow.
“One person familiar with the talks said Washington and Moscow were pressing China to agree to a meeting,” the newspaper reported.
Putin and Witkoff discussed possible summit
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff discussed the possibility of a three-way meeting during talks in St Petersburg on October 21.
Ushakov said the idea had “garnered such intense global interest” and that none of the three sides had ruled it out. On Monday, Peskov said Putin’s APEC schedule was still being drawn up.
Each leader has met the other two in bilateral talks, but the three have never held a joint summit. The meeting would be the first trilateral summit between Xi, Putin and Trump.
Xi and Trump have met twice this year, most recently during Xi’s visit to the White House in September.
Putin visited Xi in Beijing in May, while Trump and Putin last met in person in Alaska in August 2025.
Zelenskyy warns against a new Yalta
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last month that the proposed summit could give Moscow “another major diplomatic advantage”.
“We really don't want this to turn into 'Yalta 2, 3, 4', with a redistribution of influence,” he said, referring to the 1945 summit at which Soviet, US, and British leaders discussed the post-war order.
“Russia wants this meeting more than anyone,” Zelenskyy said.
