US President Donald Trump says he expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at next week’s APEC leaders’ summit in China, where discussions could include ending the war in Iran and nuclear disarmament.
Speaking to reporters before departing Florida for Washington on Sunday, Trump confirmed that he would travel to Shenzhen, the southern Chinese technology hub hosting the summit on November 18 and 19.
“I think one of the meetings will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that’ll be interesting,” Trump said, adding that the discussions would cover several issues, including denuclearisation and efforts to end the war in Iran.
In October, Trump said he was open to holding three-way arms control discussions with Xi and Putin, with a particular focus on nuclear disarmament.
The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that Putin had proposed using a trilateral meeting to discuss ending Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes programme, Trump said he believed the United States was “very close to making a deal” to end the Russia-Ukraine war. He suggested that an agreement would leave Ukraine in a “little bit different shape” but did not provide further details.
Source: Reuters / Agencies
