Kremlin allows Putin-Trump talks with Xi Jinping's participation

US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin may hold a trilateral meeting at the upcoming APEC summit in China. The possibility of such talks has already been discussed by Moscow and Beijing.

This was stated by Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov to journalist Pavel Zarubin.

According to Ushakov, the issue of a possible trilateral meeting was touched upon during the negotiations between Putin and Xi Jinping held on August 31.

"The topic was touched upon, yes," — said Putin's aide, answering a question about possible talks between the leaders of Russia, the US and China.

Ushakov claims that Xi Jinping, as the head of the host country, mentioned the expected participation of Trump. Putin also received an invitation to the event.

"Xi Jinping as the host mentioned that Trump will apparently come, and obviously Putin will come too as an invited guest. And if it works out, as was said, it will be possible to organize a trilateral meeting," — Ushakov said.

However, there is no agreed trilateral summit yet. From the statement of Putin's aide it follows that such a meeting is considered only as one possible format of negotiations on the sidelines of APEC.

If it is not possible to gather all three leaders at once, according to Ushakov, separate bilateral contacts are possible. He said that in that case the summit participants will try to hold meetings with each other.

Earlier on August 23, Ushakov said that Putin and Trump would likely talk if both are present at the APEC summit. Then the Kremlin representative noted that Moscow had not yet received any specific signals from the American side about such a meeting.

The meeting of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation will be held in Shenzhen, China. The summit will be one of the key international events of the year for China.

Thus, the main new development is that Moscow and Beijing have discussed not only possible separate Putin-Trump talks, but also the format of a meeting between three leaders at once — Russia, the US and China. A final decision on holding it has not been announced yet.

Source: Pavel Zarubin