The key facts
- Peskov: proposals on the agenda are being exchanged, the meeting 'would be interesting' and would attract the world's attention
- Possible venue — the APEC summit in Shenzhen on November 18–19
- No final agreement on the trilateral meeting has yet been reached
The Kremlin on preparations for a trilateral meeting
Russia, the United States and China continue to coordinate the agenda of a possible meeting between Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on November 9 that the sides are 'exchanging proposals on a possible agenda' and that the talks could touch on 'a wide variety of issues.' According to him, such a meeting 'would in any case be interesting' and 'would attract the attention of the whole world' (Life.ru; Gazeta.Ru).
What is known about the plans and the venue
Earlier, Trump told journalists that he expects to meet with the Russian and Chinese leaders during his trip to China. Among the expected topics he singled out denuclearization — the reduction of nuclear weapons — while emphasizing that the range of issues to be discussed would be broader. The possible venue is the APEC summit, which will take place on November 18–19 in Shenzhen, China; however, a final agreement on the trilateral talks has not yet been announced.
Context of the coordination
Gazeta.Ru provides a timeline of the preparations: on October 19, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing its sources, that Putin had proposed to Trump and Xi Jinping holding a trilateral meeting to discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine; on November 3, Peskov said that work on coordinating the meeting was underway. The Kremlin had also previously explained that the participants' interests in shaping the agenda do not always coincide: issues that are a priority for one country may prove unacceptable to another, so the topics will have to find a compromise acceptable to Moscow, Washington and Beijing.
