White House says Trump, Xi and Putin will hold first three-way meeting in China

Update, 7:40 a.m. ET Saturday: The meeting is now set. The leaders of the United States, China and Russia plan to meet Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, the White House confirmed Friday, the Associated Press reported, calling it an unprecedented gathering of the heads of the world's biggest nuclear powers. "The president has made it clear that, among other topics, 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, BBC News reported. Iran may also come up, but Ukraine is not expected to, and a senior U.S. official said no agreement is expected from the talks, the BBC reported. Trump will attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the Philippines on Tuesday before arriving in Shenzhen late Wednesday, and he will also hold one-on-one talks with Xi on Thursday. Moscow and Beijing had not commented on the three-way meeting as of Friday, according to the BBC, and analysts told the AP they expect the talks to be heavier on symbolism than substance.

WASHINGTON (Nov. 9) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he expects to sit down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin together when he travels to Shenzhen, China, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Nov. 18 and 19, The Japan Times reported.

"One of the meetings, I think, will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that'll be interesting," Trump told reporters. "We're talking a lot of things, including denuclearization, but we'll be talking a lot of things. We're trying to end the war in Iran."

A meeting of the three leaders would be the first of its kind. Beijing has confirmed it is discussing one, The Associated Press reported, with a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson saying China "is in communication with relevant parties regarding a meeting between the three heads of state." The AP noted that nothing has been finalized.

Asked about Trump's comments on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun again did not rule out the meeting, The Hindu reported. Trump and Xi are also set to meet one-on-one in Shenzhen, their third meeting this year after Trump's trip to Beijing in May and Xi's visit to Washington in September, and they are due to see each other again at the Group of 20 summit in Miami at the end of the year.

Some Chinese analysts have played down the prospects. A scholar at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies told Chinese state media that an informal exchange was more likely than a formal three-way summit, given strong opposition in the U.S. and Europe to negotiating with Moscow without Ukraine, The Hindu reported.