Kremlin: Putin, Xi and Trump could meet at APEC summit – Kyiv warns
A three-way meeting in Shenzhen “has indeed been mentioned”, Peskov says, but nothing is agreed. Foreign Minister Sybiha says such a meeting would encourage Putin to keep fighting.
Archive image · Photo: Presidential Executive Office of Russia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump could meet at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, on November 18-19. The three leaders might attend the summit, so a meeting “has indeed been mentioned”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. But there were no “substantive proposals or agreements” on a meeting, its agenda or its content. Moscow also said no final peace deal is possible without Kyiv's participation.
The Wall Street Journal had reported that Putin wants to discuss ending the Ukraine war with Xi and Trump on terms favouring Moscow. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Uzbekistan, said he did not know whether anything had been finalised and that Trump wants the war to end. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she had no information.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha warned that a meeting of Russia, China and the US would encourage Putin to keep fighting, while a trilateral meeting of Ukraine, the US and Russia could end the war sooner. He called Putin “a war criminal” with no place at the table with Trump and Xi.