China to host APEC summit in Shenzhen with historic Xi, Trump, Putin trilateral meet

China is set to host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting next week in its high-tech Shenzhen city, where the presidents of China, the US and Russia will hold a historic trilateral summit. The meeting of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders will take place November 18-19. It gains importance as Chinese President Xi Jinping will host a summit with his US and Russian counterparts, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Discussions at the trilateral summit are expected to focus on a host of global issues, including global conflicts, AI and the reduction of nuclear weapons by big powers.

The White House confirmed that the three leaders are planning to meet on the sidelines of a summit in China next week. The historic meeting between the leaders of the US, Russia and China will take place as Trump attends the APEC summit in Shenzhen, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told the media. "The president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous," BBC quoted her as saying. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told the media in Beijing on Friday that China is in communication with the US and Russia on the trilateral summit.

Mao said the theme for the 21-member APEC summit is "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together." "We look forward to working with all parties to adopt the Shenzhen Declaration at next week's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and achieve practical outcomes in areas that are vital for both regional and global economic growth, such as trade, connectivity, digital economy, and artificial intelligence," she said. The 21 APEC members are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

No South Asian country, including India, is part of the APEC. Trump will arrive in Shenzhen late on Wednesday for the two-day summit of APEC states. He will also take part in bilateral talks with Xi on Thursday -- their fourth meeting since the US president returned to office in 2025, according to the BBC report. This will also be the unprecedented third meeting between the two leaders this year. Trump visited Beijing in May this year and held wide-ranging talks with Xi. He also rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese president when he paid a state visit to Washington in September and personally received him at the airport.

But their Shenzhen meeting takes place against the backdrop of massive wins by the Democrats against the Trump-backed Republicans in the recently concluded US midterm elections. The Democrats won control of the US Senate and Congress, denting Trump's power and influence. For Xi, who is widely expected to get elected for a fourth five-year term in next year's once-in-a-five-year congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), summit meetings with the US President -- regarded as the principal adversary of China -- were a political boost at home, as no other Chinese leader has ever been feted by America like this.

"President Trump will conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting between the president of the United States, the president of the People's Republic of China, and the president of the Russian Federation," Wales said, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. She said Trump's trip, which will also include attending an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Philippines on Tuesday, would "secure historic wins to the American people and advance America's interests in the Indo-Pacific". Wales said that "among other topics", Trump planned to discuss the "reduction of nuclear weapons".

The trilateral meeting could yield a commitment to control artificial intelligence (AI) in nuclear arsenals as part of a broader agenda on global governance, the report said. The three countries had engaged in weeks of back-and-forth discussions to nail down the agenda and protocol for talks. "I think the president does intend to talk about Iran in the trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin," a senior US official said, adding that the war in Ukraine was not on the agenda. "We have had many meetings recently with the Russians, but China is not really a part of that track, so it doesn't seem appropriate to have the Ukraine discussion there," the senior official said, according to the report.

No bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin is scheduled, and Washington has no plans to engage with North Korea during the trip, according to the White House. The senior US official noted Washington did not expect "any kind of agreement" at the trilateral meeting and characterised the talks as an "entry point" for conversation about "reducing the number of nuclear weapons", the report said. The choice of Shenzhen, a bustling metropolis in Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong, carries significance as China seeks to showcase its economic transformation and technological prowess. Once a relatively small fishing settlement of 30,000 people, Shenzhen was transformed into a high-tech metropolis of 18 million in four decades.

It is now Asia's fourth-largest city economy, aided by Special Economic Zones emerging as a global manufacturing, technology and innovation centre, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.