Trump, Putin And Xi To Hold First-Ever Trilateral Summit In China
President Donald Trump will join Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Shenzhen, southern China, on Thursday for the first trilateral summit among the three nuclear powers, a high-stakes meeting the White House says will focus on nuclear arms and the war in Iran.[1]
Announced Friday, November 13, the gathering will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and will deliberately exclude Ukraine and US export controls on advanced chip technology, according to US officials.[1] Trump is scheduled to arrive in China after attending an ASEAN summit in the Philippines and will also hold a separate bilateral working lunch and meeting with Xi, underscoring the intense US-China agenda running alongside the three-way session.[1]
Trump has pushed for three-way nuclear negotiations since his first term, insisting that any successor to the now-expired US-Russia New START treaty must also limit China's rapidly growing arsenal, a demand Beijing has repeatedly resisted. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates that China's stockpile has expanded by about 100 warheads a year since 2023 to at least 600-620 weapons, even as it still remains far smaller than those of Washington and Moscow.[2] Federation of American Scientists (FAS) data for 2026 indicates Russia holds roughly 4,400 warheads in its military stockpile and the US about 3,700, with the two countries together accounting for around 86% of the world's roughly 12,000 nuclear warheads, while China's 620 warheads continue to climb toward Pentagon projections of about 1,000 operational warheads by 2030.[3]
The nuclear talks are unfolding against the backdrop of a collapsing arms control framework between Washington and Moscow. The US and Russia stopped publicly exchanging New START treaty data in 2023, and the pact, which had been the last binding cap on their deployed strategic forces, expired in February 2026 with no replacement in force.[2] Trump's push to bring China into any new regime reflects US concern that Beijing's buildup, including about 350 new intercontinental ballistic missile silos completed or nearly completed by early 2025, could reshape the strategic balance even if China remains well below current US or Russian stockpile levels through at least the mid-2030s.[2]
US officials are presenting the Shenzhen meeting as focused and narrow: nuclear risk reduction and the widening conflict in Iran, with Ukraine kept on a separate diplomatic track involving Kyiv and no room for bargaining over US controls on advanced semiconductor exports to China. The Kremlin, for its part, has tried to tamp down speculation that the gathering could redraw the global order, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejecting comparisons to the 1945 Yalta Conference and saying no side should seek to impose its vision of how the world should be run.[1] The result is a summit that brings the world's three leading nuclear powers to one table for the first time, but with tightly defined boundaries on what they are prepared to negotiate.
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📊 Relevant Data
Federation of American Scientists estimates for 2026: Russia has about 4,400 warheads in its military stockpile (5,420 total inventory, including retired warheads awaiting dismantlement), the United States 3,700 (5,042 total), and China about 620. FAS says the U.S. and Russia hold about 86% of the world's roughly 12,000 warheads, and that China's stockpile is increasing; the Pentagon projected in 2022 that China would have about 1,000 operational warheads by 2030.
Status of World Nuclear Forces — Federation of American Scientists
SIPRI's 2025 Yearbook estimated China had at least 600 warheads, growing faster than any other country's arsenal at about 100 new warheads a year since 2023, with about 350 new ICBM silos completed or nearly completed by January 2025. It projected that even at a maximum of about 1,500 warheads by 2035, China would hold about one third of current Russian or U.S. stockpiles. The U.S. and Russia stopped publicly exchanging New START data in 2023, and the treaty, the last limit on their strategic forces, has since expired (February 2026).
Nuclear risks grow as new arms race looms—new SIPRI Yearbook out now — Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
📌 Key Facts
- On Friday, November 13, 2026, the White House announced a first-ever trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Xi next week in southern China.
- The meeting will occur Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, with nuclear reductions and the Iran war on the agenda.
- U.S. officials say Ukraine will not be discussed in the three-way session and that American export controls on chip technology are also off the table.
- Trump will also hold a separate bilateral working lunch and meeting with Xi, and will travel to China after a stop in the Philippines for an ASEAN summit.
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