White House says Trump, Xi and Putin will meet in Shenzhen on nuclear arms and Iran, not Ukraine

The White House said President Trump will urge Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss cutting nuclear arsenals when the three meet in Shenzhen next week, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' meeting. Deutsche Welle reported that a senior US official does not expect an agreement. Kommersant, a Moscow business daily, led its morning summary with the announcement and the nonproliferation agenda and presented it as a White House initiative.

The agenda leaves out the war in Ukraine. According to the Kyiv Independent, a US official said the meeting will focus on nuclear nonproliferation and the war in Iran. The paper described it as the first summit among the three leaders. Earlier Chinese-language coverage in Hong Kong showed that Beijing, as host, controlled whether the meeting would happen. Putin said its holding depended on China and on an agreed agenda, and one scholar told HK01 that the meeting would not become a "Yalta 2.0".

Europe is organizing its own channel. The New York Times reported that after seeking a seat in the Ukraine discussions, Europe is poised to get one and wants to fill it with a six-member team. That seat is in talks with Russia, not at the leaders' table in Shenzhen. Earlier this month the EU sent officials to US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, and its envoys were not expected to sit at the negotiating table.

Each party gains something from the arrangement. Washington gets a forum on Iran, where it needs Chinese and Russian restraint over oil buying and arms supply. Moscow gets to sit as an equal with the two largest economies while its war continues. Beijing gets to host both powers on Chinese soil. Ukraine and the European states that fund much of its defense get no seat in the room where the three leaders meet.