WASHINGTON( WNAM MONITORING): US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in China next week for trilateral talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the White House said Friday.
The meeting will take place in Shenzhen.
“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,” Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales told reporters on a call.
Trump will also hold a bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi on Thursday afternoon before concluding his visit to China with the trilateral meeting, Wales said.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington does not expect an agreement to emerge from the talks.
“I would characterize this as the entry point, the first conversation, certainly at the leader level between these countries,” the official said.
The official said China’s nuclear arsenal is “growing by far the fastest in the world” and argued that it was time for Beijing to “step up to the adult table.”
Trump plans to discuss Iran in the trilateral meeting but not Ukraine, the official said, because China is not part of the separate US-Russia track.
Trump’s Asia trip
Wales said Trump would leave Washington on Monday for Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where he is scheduled to attend a Quad leaders’ meeting and the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Special Summit.
He will also sign a trade agreement with Thailand and attend a welcome ceremony with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., she said.
Trump will then travel to Shenzhen on Wednesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, followed by his bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi on Thursday.
Another senior US official described the Trump-Xi meeting as “an implementation check-in, a stocktaking” of the trade agreement, adding that no announcement on tariff changes was expected.
On rare earths, the official said Washington is “not getting them at the pace and at the level that we would like.”
The official said this was why the Busan agreement had been extended for two months rather than six, adding that Trump is expected to raise the issue with Xi.
The official also addressed allegations involving US chipmaker Nvidia, saying they “should not really have any bearing on the trip.”
“We do not negotiate American export controls,” the official added.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will join Trump for parts of his visit to China but will not participate in official meetings, according to US officials.
