China confirms talks on Xi-Trump-Putin meeting in Shenzhen

Beijing — BEIJING — China has confirmed for the first time that it is discussing a meeting between President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a three-leader gathering that would take place this month on the sidelines of a regional summit in Shenzhen.

Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said at a press briefing in Beijing this week that China "is in communication with relevant parties regarding a meeting between the three heads of state," The Hindu reported. Nothing is set, the report said.

Beijing is hosting this year's leaders' summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a 21-member grouping that includes the U.S. and Russia. Mr Trump is expected to travel to Shenzhen to meet Mr Xi for the third time this year, with the fragile trade truce between Washington and Beijing set to expire in January.

Tensions remain close to the surface. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, in a video call on Friday with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, urged Beijing to take "concrete actions to fully implement its past commitments, particularly as they relate to agricultural purchases, rare earths, and other critical minerals," according to a statement from Mr Greer's office. China's official news agency Xinhua said on Saturday that the two sides held in-depth, constructive exchanges, and that Beijing raised concerns about Washington's restrictive economic and trade measures.

Mr Trump has said he would be interested in discussing nuclear arms control with Mr Xi and Mr Putin, while Mr Putin is focused on talking about the war in Ukraine without Kyiv at the table. "President Putin has the most to gain from a leaders' trilateral, and the Russians are clearly behind the push for a meeting, which would be a diplomatic coup," Danny Russel, a former senior State Department official now at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told The Hindu.

Sun Yun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Center, said China would not engage substantively on arms control, Ukraine or Iran, and that the summit "should not be equated to three great powers dividing up the world." Craig Singleton of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said such photo opportunities carry "diminishing diplomatic returns," adding: "The spectacle may be historic without producing anything particularly consequential."

The first test of the diplomacy is the APEC leaders' summit in Shenzhen this month; the next is January, when the U.S.-China trade truce is due to expire unless extended.