The key facts
- Peskov called the comparison of the Russia–US–China summit with the Yalta Conference inappropriate.
- Khazin earlier suggested that the leaders' meeting at APEC could become a 'new Yalta'.
- Putin said that a trilateral meeting depends on Xi Jinping as the host of the APEC summit.
Kremlin rejects comparison with Yalta
Press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said that a possible Russia–US–China summit should not be called a 'new Yalta'. 'Such a comparison is completely inappropriate,' said the official Kremlin spokesman, as quoted by Interfax.
Khazin's forecast
Earlier, economist Mikhail Khazin suggested that a possible meeting between Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in November could become a 'new Yalta'. In his view, unlike 1945, there is not yet a single package of agreements between the parties, but the interests of the three powers require a division of spheres of influence. Khazin predicted that the leaders would 'divide the world and draw new red lines', and afterwards, at the G20 summit in Miami, they would announce that everyone now lives in a new way.
Putin's statement and historical context
On October 1, Putin, speaking at the plenary session of the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, said that the possibility of a trilateral meeting at the APEC summit would largely depend on Xi Jinping as the host of the event. In February 1945, the Yalta Conference of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain — allies in the anti-Hitler coalition — took place in Crimea; the decisions adopted there laid the foundations of the postwar world order. Earlier, the Chinese ambassador assessed the impact of a possible meeting of Putin, Trump and Xi on a multipolar world.
