Trump Rates Denuclearization as Top Topic at Next Week’s Trilateral Summit With Xi, Putin

The American, Russian and Chinese presidents meeting in Communist China next week evokes memories of the Yalta conference in February 1945 at which the “Big Three,” President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, set the stage for Germany’s defeat in World War II.The trilateral conference of President Trump, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China in the southeastern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Nov. 18 and 19 should provide a photo op reminiscent of the picture of the allied leaders seated side by side at the resort of Yalta in Crimea, part of the Soviet Union. It’s far from certain, however, that Messrs. Trump, Putin and Xi can come to terms on anything beyond vaguely hopeful statements considering how far apart they are on the issue that Mr. Trump wants most to discuss.“We’ll talk a lot of things, including denuclearization,” Mr. Trump has said, but Mr. Xi has declared denuclearization is off the table since America and Russia each have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads while China is far behind with upwards of 600.In fact, Mr. Xi is clearly less than optimistic about the prospects for the summit, to be held “on the sidelines” of the gathering of the 21 leaders of members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group known as APEC. They represent 19 Asia-Pacific nations plus Hong Kong, the former British colony that was absorbed into China in 1997, and Free Taiwan, the off-shore Chinese province that remains fiercely independent despite Mr. Xi’s vows eventually to put it under Beijing’s thumb.A sign of Mr. Xi’s lack of enthusiasm is that he has yet to formally endorse what should be an epoch, historically significant event, the first ever gathering of the American, Russian and Chinese leaders. The fact that they will be sitting down in the same room for even a few minutes of palaver is a good sign. Hopes for peace, however slim, range from Ukraine, where the Russians keep killing people with drones, to the middle east, where Russia and China support Iran with arms and other forms of assistance against America and Israel, to northeast Asia, where North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, supported by Russia and China, threatens South Korea, Japan, and far-off America with nuclear weapons..China’s Global Times reports a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying China is “in communication with relevant parties regarding the meeting between the Chinese, Russian and US presidents,” but Mr.Xi will presumably join his American and Russian guests if only because he’s hosting APEC.Nor will Mr. Xi want to appear rude to either Mr. Trump, who hosted him at the White House in September, or to Mr. Putin, with whom he’s been promoting warm ties across their long border. China and Russia are the two giants of what the Americans are calling CRINK, the acronym for China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, all cooperating against Washington.It’s Mr. Putin who’s been pushing hardest for the sideline summit, which he expects will boost his relationship with Mr. Trump. To the dismay of Ukraine’s President Voldemyr Zelensky, Mr. Putin agreed on shipping diesel oil to America while Washington removed onerous sanctions imposed during Mr. Putin’s war against Ukraine.The Russian national newspaper Izvestia, once a Soviet mouthpiece, still a voice for the government, reported “a senior Russian diplomat” as saying a trilateral summit “could give a strong positive boost to international affairs” while focusing “on the most pressing challenges.” While “the key parameters of the talks have yet to be clarified,” the paper said, “experts argue that a potential summit could help find common ground on Ukraine as well.”Izvestia quoted assorted “experts” from universities and government institutes, all of whom spoke glowingly of all the trilateral could accomplish.“Although the economy is APEC’s absolute priority, political issues will clearly take center stage this time around,” said the deputy director of the Moscow Pedagogical State University’s History and Politics Institute, Vladimir Shapovalov. “The planned meeting between the leaders of Russia, the United States, and China will be the summit’s main event.” Ukraine, Izvestia reported him as saying, “would be one of the issues that Putin, Trump and Xi may discuss.”Ukraine’s President Zelensky, not invited as an observer, cannot expect Mr. Trump to be sticking up for him against Mr. Putin. “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.” Mr. Trump has said, indicating he might almost prefer to skip the whole topic of the war. In any case, he said, the would conversation not be “so much for Ukraine.”Nonetheless, Mr. Zelensky, before Mr. Trump made the deal for buying Russian diesel oil and lifting sanctions, was all for such a summit. At the United Nations in September, he said “the most important move President Trump can make” would be to “organize a trilateral meeting where the leaders can raise all the sensitive issues and try to end the war.”Comparisons with the conference at Yalta 81 years ago were irresistible even if the issues are very different and the chances of real agreement seem minimal“The prospect of a meeting between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen on 18–19 November 2026 has revived debate over a ‘new Yalta,’” said the Italian think tank Istituto Analisi Relazioni Internazionali. “The three powers possess military capabilities far exceeding those of most states, but they do not form a homogeneous bloc. Episodic convergence does not erase rivalries, trade asymmetries or problems of mutual trust.”

Trump Rates Denuclearization as Top Topic at Next Week’s Trilateral Summit With Xi, Putin

Trump Rates Denuclearization as Top Topic at Next Week’s Trilateral Summit With Xi, Putin

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