Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to hold historic first-ever meeting next week

The leaders of the world's three largest nuclear powers are set to gather together for the first time in history next week, the White House has confirmed.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will hold an unprecedented trilateral meeting on Thursday in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales announced that "President Trump will conclude his visit to China with a trilateral meeting between the president of the United States, the president of the People's Republic of China, and the president of the Russian Federation."

The three-way talks would mark a landmark moment in global diplomacy, bringing Washington, Moscow and Beijing to a single table for the first time.

Curbing the global stockpile of nuclear weapons will be the central topic on the table, according to the White House.

Ms Wales stated that "the president has made it clear that, among other topics, he will discuss the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world, whose proliferation President Trump believes is very dangerous."

Iran is also understood to be a potential subject of discussion, though Ukraine will not feature in the conversation.

A senior US official, speaking anonymously, said no formal agreement is expected to emerge from the talks.

President Trump's Asia-Pacific itinerary begins with an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the Philippines on Tuesday before he travels to Shenzhen, where he is expected to arrive late on Wednesday.

Ms Wales said the trip would "secure historic wins to the American people and advance America's interests in the Indo-Pacific."

Thursday's one-on-one session with Xi will mark their fourth face-to-face encounter since Trump's return to the White House in 2025, following separate visits to Beijing earlier this year and Xi's trip to Washington in September.

The trilateral push comes after a US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty lapsed in February, leaving the two countries' vast arsenals without significant constraints.

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President Trump has argued he could negotiate a superior replacement that brings China, which has been expanding its nuclear capabilities, into the fold.

The United Nations has urged both Washington and Moscow to urgently establish a new framework, though former senior US officials and analysts have cautioned that securing cooperation from Beijing and Moscow could prove enormously challenging and take years.

Neither Moscow nor Beijing has formally acknowledged the planned three-way summit.

Chinese state media reported on Friday that Xi would participate in "bilateral" discussions at the APEC gathering, citing a foreign ministry spokesman, but made no mention of any trilateral format.

Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state news agency Tass that there were "signals confirming readiness" for such a meeting at the summit.

Beijing has grown into a vital commercial partner for Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 left it increasingly isolated and burdened by Western sanctions.