White House confirms US-China-Russia trilateral on Apec sidelines

The White House on Friday confirmed an unprecedented meeting between leaders of the US, China and Russia has been scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen next week.

“President Trump will conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting between the President of the United States, the President of the People’s Republic of China and the President of the Russian Federation,” said Olivia Wales, the White House assistant press secretary.

Wales added that Trump plans to discuss the “reduction of nuclear weapons”, adding that the US leader considers such proliferation very dangerous.

The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that the planned trilateral could yield a commitment to control artificial intelligence (AI) in nuclear arsenals as part of a broader agenda on global governance.

Sources also told the SCMP that the three countries have engaged in weeks of back-and-forth discussion to nail down the agenda and protocol for talks.

“I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,” a senior US official said, adding that the war in Ukraine was not on the agenda.

“We have had many meetings recently with the Russians, but China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn’t seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there,” the senior official said.