Trump envoy hints at U.S.-China-Russia trilateral talks, with Ukraine excluded from peace-plan discussions

[Financial News]  

Steven Charles Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, proposed to Russia that a trilateral meeting among the United States, China and Russia be held next month to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine.
The proposal is for President Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet during the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, and reach a settlement on Ukraine.
The proposal has been likened to the Yalta Conference, when senior leaders from the United States, Britain and the former Soviet Union gathered in Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula from February to November 1945, near the end of World War II, and agreed on the postwar world order, the division and occupation of Germany, and a plan for trusteeship over Korea. This is because Ukraine, a party to the conflict, would be excluded from the talks.
Interfax reported on the 21st (local time), citing remarks by Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, that discussions were underway on a plan to end the war in Ukraine through a trilateral meeting of the United States, China and Russia. Ushakov said that, when special envoy Witkoff met with President Putin in Saint Petersburg that day, one of the main issues raised by the Russian side was establishing “a security system between Russia and Ukraine after the war.”
During his seven-day visit to Russia, Witkoff handled the issue of negotiations to end the war from Russia’s side, drawing backlash from Ukraine and Europe. In return, Russia released one U.S. citizen who had been detained that day.
Ushakov said Putin had agreed to resume negotiations on Ukraine with Witkoff in mid-next month and to pursue a trilateral summit among the United States, China and Russia at the APEC summit in Shenzhen. He added that China was already preparing for the trilateral meeting.
According to U.S. media outlets including The Hill on the 21st, some Republicans are also pushing back against a “second Yalta Conference.”
Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) called it “reckless and morally wrong” and said emphatically, “Ukraine must be part of any negotiations.” Cassidy also bluntly denounced Russia, saying, “Russia is trying to kill Americans around the world, covertly or openly.”
Senator Thom Tillis (North Carolina) also said, “Putin is manipulating Trump like a puppet,” and argued that it is absurd to discuss ending the war in Ukraine at a trilateral summit when Xi Jinping and Putin are trying to take control of the entire world.
Meanwhile, as Trump focuses on ending the war in Ukraine at the APEC summit in November, the likelihood of a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to decrease accordingly.
[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter