Steinmeier: China denies preparations for a trilateral meeting on Ukraine

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, after a meeting with Xi Jinping, said that the Chinese leader did not confirm reports of an upcoming Russia–US–China summit on the Ukrainian conflict. Contacts on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen on November 18–19 are possible, but Ukraine will not be on the agenda.

Aziz KarimovFirst published on tafs uz 1 November 2026 at 23:372 min read

The key facts

According to Steinmeier, Xi Jinping denied preparations for a trilateral summit on Ukraine
The Chinese leader called the Ukrainian conflict a European problem and said Europe must take part in the talks
Rubio previously spoke of Trump's plans to separately meet Putin and Xi Jinping at the APEC and G20 summits

China has not confirmed preparations for a trilateral summit

China, according to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is not preparing a trilateral summit with Russia and the United States on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. He said this after a meeting with PRC Chairman Xi Jinping in Beijing; his remarks were reported by Tagesschau. The German president directly asked the Chinese leader about reports of possible talks between the three countries — according to Steinmeier, Xi was surprised by the question and denied the information about preparations for a meeting. According to the German president, there are no signs of any such summit being organized.

APEC and Beijing's position

At the same time, Steinmeier allowed for the possibility that representatives of Russia, the United States and China could hold talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, scheduled for November 18–19, but, according to his information, the Ukrainian conflict will not be on the agenda of such a meeting. According to Steinmeier, Xi Jinping called the Ukrainian conflict a European problem and stressed that Europe must take part in any possible talks on a peaceful settlement.

Context: plans for bilateral meetings

Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Donald Trump intends to separately meet with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at the upcoming APEC and G20 summits; according to Rubio, the leaders' bilateral talks will take place separately from the main program of both forums. Thus, at this point, the only confirmed contacts from this set concern possible bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the forums, while the trilateral format on Ukraine has not been confirmed by Beijing, according to Steinmeier.