Arabic version: ترامب وشي وبوتين يخططون لقمة في شنتشن

According to Al Jazeera, United States President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are set to hold their first three-way meeting next week in Shenzhen, China. The White House said the leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Chinese technology hub.

The meeting is planned nine months after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, expired in February. Its lapse left Washington and Moscow, the countries with the world’s two largest atomic arsenals, without caps for the first time in more than 50 years. Trump has said the talks offer a chance to reach a deal on nuclear stockpiles.

Trump rejected a Russian proposal to extend New START for another year and called for a “new, improved and modernized” agreement that includes China. A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that no agreement is expected from the Shenzhen meeting, describing it as the beginning of a conversation. Russia has the most nuclear warheads, followed by the US and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

A senior US official said Trump also plans to discuss the Iran war with Xi and Putin, while avoiding discussion of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Elon Musk is expected to travel with Trump to China but will not attend the meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the planned meeting “extremely significant” while rejecting comparisons with the 1945 Yalta Conference. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed concern that Ukraine could be discussed without Kyiv’s involvement.