Putin proposes trilateral meeting with Trump and Xi next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine

[Financial News] Russian President Vladimir Putin, who discussed Ukraine at a summit in the United States last year, has proposed holding a trilateral meeting of the U.S., Chinese and Russian leaders in China next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine again. The U.S. side has yet to say whether it supports or opposes the proposal, while China reportedly will not object if the United States agrees.
The U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported the proposal on the 18th, local time, citing a former Russian intelligence official. According to the official, during a call with U.S. President Donald Trump on the 9th, Putin proposed that only the leaders of the U.S., China and Russia meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Another official said Russia had mentioned the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled for Nov. 18–19 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, as a possible venue for the trilateral meeting.
Earlier, Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, appeared on Russia’s state-run Vesti TV on the 1st and announced that Putin would hold either a bilateral or joint meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during this APEC summit. Xi had also invited Trump and his wife to the APEC summit during a state visit to the United States on the 25th of last month. Trump promised at the time that he would attend. In a statement on the 1st, Putin said of the possibility of a trilateral meeting between the U.S., China and Russia, “We are very much in favor.”
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the WSJ on the 18th, “All three leaders acknowledge the hypothetical possibility that such a meeting could take place, but nothing has yet been clearly decided about the meeting itself or its potential agenda.”
Officials who spoke with the WSJ said Russia had recently conveyed the idea of a trilateral meeting to China. China said it would not object if Trump agreed. A senior U.S. official made clear that Trump had not yet agreed to the meeting. However, the official said Trump might respond positively, since he had made ending the war in Ukraine a campaign promise and wanted to fulfill it.



The WSJ, citing experts, noted that if the trilateral meeting takes place, it would be a major stepping stone for Xi Jinping as he seeks to strengthen China’s role as a mediator on the international diplomatic stage. “China wants to be seen as a central hub among major powers and potentially as a mediator between the United States and Russia,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the U.S. think tank Stimson Center.
Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Trump is trying to find a breakthrough in the war in Ukraine. During a call with Putin on the 9th, he said he would temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports. On the 18th, Trump posted on the social media platform Truth Social about lifting the sanctions, writing, “My decision on Russia is very simple.” He said, “I am currently negotiating peace in the Russia-Ukraine war, and I don’t want to do anything foolish that would make Russia walk away from the negotiating table.” He also said, “He [Zelenskyy] doesn’t want to end this war, and perhaps never has.”
Zelenskyy appeared on U.S. broadcaster NBC on the 18th and said that the sharing of military intelligence, including U.S. missile early-warning information, “was cut off for a period, and then the U.S. side lifted the suspension. I am very grateful for that,” adding, “It is now being shared normally.” In another interview that day, when asked who was behind the slowdown in the satellite internet service Starlink, he replied, “The authorities and the White House.” Ukraine has previously used Starlink, provided by U.S. company SpaceX, to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and conduct other military operations. Since the Starlink service slowed on the 13th, the Ukrainian military has struggled to carry out operations. On the 18th, Zelenskyy claimed that the United States was pressuring Ukraine to surrender.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not answer a question in an NBC interview that day about whether Ukraine was a U.S. ally. He criticized Zelenskyy’s remarks about Starlink as “a very reckless claim.”



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