Trump to meet Xi and Putin together in Shenzhen, White House says

US President Donald Trump will hold a three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his trip to China next week, the White House has said. The Times of Israel reported that the talks are scheduled for Thursday and will take place on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, describing the format as a rare one.

According to The Times of Israel, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told reporters that Trump intends to raise the reduction of nuclear weapons worldwide, among other subjects. She said the president regards the spread of such weapons as "very dangerous." The Israeli news channel N12 carried the same announcement, reporting that a White House spokesperson said Trump would meet the two leaders and discuss cutting nuclear arsenals.

Where and when the meeting is set

The reports place the meeting in Shenzhen, a large manufacturing and technology hub in southern China that sits across the border from Hong Kong. N12, citing a report in the New York Post, said the gathering would be held alongside the APEC conference in the city. APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, is a grouping of Pacific Rim economies whose leaders meet once a year, and those meetings regularly serve as a venue for side talks between heads of state.

The sources describe the timing slightly differently. The Times of Israel and the earlier N12 item both give Thursday as the date and tie the meeting to the summit. The edited N12 version instead says the meeting will come at the close of Trump's visit to China. These accounts are not necessarily in conflict, but none of the reports sets out the full itinerary of the trip.

Nuclear arms on the agenda

All three reports put nuclear weapons at the centre of the talks. The White House framing, as relayed by The Times of Israel, is about reducing nuclear weapons around the world. The New York Post account cited by N12 went further, saying the discussion was expected to focus mainly on trying to put together an agreement on nuclear arms control.

The three countries involved hold some of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world. For decades, formal arms control between the great powers was largely a two-way affair between Washington and Moscow, and US administrations have pressed for Beijing to be brought into such arrangements. A meeting that seats the American, Russian and Chinese leaders at the same table would be an unusual setting for that kind of conversation, which is why the planned format has drawn attention.

Other topics, including Iran

According to the New York Post report cited by N12, the leaders may also discuss North Korea and the war in Iran. That detail did not appear in the White House remarks as reported by The Times of Israel, where the spokeswoman said only that nuclear reduction would be discussed among other topics, without listing them. Readers should treat the wider agenda as reported by one outlet rather than confirmed by the White House.

For Israeli and Jewish readers, the mention of Iran is the point of most direct interest. Both Russia and China maintain ties with Tehran, and any discussion of the conflict among the three leaders could bear on the region. None of the reports, however, describes what position any of the leaders is expected to take on Iran, or whether Israel was raised.

Who said what

The core announcement, that the three leaders will meet and that nuclear weapons will be discussed, comes from the White House and was carried by both The Times of Israel and N12. The Times of Israel named the spokeswoman as Olivia Wales; N12's edited item referred to a White House spokesperson without a name. The expectation of a push for an arms control agreement, and the possible inclusion of North Korea and Iran, rest on the New York Post as cited by N12.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports includes any confirmation or comment from the Kremlin or from Beijing about the three-way meeting, so it is not clear how Russia and China describe it. The reports also do not say whether any agreement or joint statement is being prepared, how long the meeting will last, or whether Trump will hold separate one-on-one talks with either leader during the trip.