Trump to Press Putin and Xi on Nuclear Arms Cuts During Rare Three-Way Meeting, White House Confirms

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump will use a gathering in China next week to press Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on reducing the world’s nuclear arsenals, the White House said on Friday.

“He will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters during a briefing call. She confirmed that the meeting is scheduled for Thursday in China.

Trump’s insistence that the unprecedented encounter between the three leaders center on nuclear arms has caused friction with China, which is using the occasion to spotlight trade and commerce. Beijing has repeatedly declined to negotiate its nuclear capabilities alongside Moscow and Washington, the two largest holders of such weapons.

The three leaders are expected to confer on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen. Trump departs on Monday for a four-day Asian tour that also includes a stop in the Philippines.

“We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement,” a senior administration official said of the nuclear question. “This is a difficult topic for China to address, but we do think it’s time for China to sort of step up, you know, to the adults’ table, if you will, and have adult conversations about adult things.”

The official described the session as “the beginning of hopefully a conversation that can be productive going forward.”

For years, Beijing has resisted direct engagement with Washington over its nuclear program, arguing that it is more fitting for Russia and the United States to lead such talks given the scale of their stockpiles.

Russia holds the largest number of stored nuclear warheads, ahead of the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the last major arms-control pact between Washington and Moscow, expired this year.

It remains unclear whether either Russia or China intends to engage Trump on arms reductions.

The Chinese and Russian embassies in Washington did not respond immediately to emailed requests for comment.

The official said Trump would also address the US-Israeli war against Iran during the meeting, though he is not expected to raise Russia’s war in Ukraine.

No one-on-one meeting with Putin is planned, and Trump is not expected to discuss Ukraine’s access to satellite communications provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Musk is traveling to China with Trump but will not join the meeting with Xi and Putin, the official said.

“We’ve 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 official added.

Trump is likewise not expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the trip, the official said.

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