China just agreed to host a summit on ending the Iran war
44 minutes ago · 9 November 2026Share
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, August 2, 2019. File photo. The White House from Washington, DC · Public domain
So here's what happened. Trump told reporters about a day ago he expects to meet both men at the Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen, China, on 18 and 19 November.
If it happens, it's a first. These three leaders have never sat down together for formal three-way talks. Only separately.
Trump says quote "I'm going to be going to China, and one of the meetings I think will be with President Putin and President Xi."
So what are they meeting about? A month ago, it was denuclearisation. Now Trump says it's Iran.
Trump says quote "We're trying to end the war in Iran."
He says denuclearisation is still on the table too. But the Iran war is the new headline item. That's a real shift from where this started.
So does China agree to any of this? Not exactly.
Mao Ning, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing five days ago that Beijing is talking to people about it. Her words: China is quote "in communication with relevant parties regarding a meeting between the three heads of state."
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Skyline in Shenzhen. File photo. Fumikas Sagisavas · CC0
That's it. No yes. No agenda. Just contact.
Russia is further along. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said six days ago that work was under way to pull the meeting together, and he hoped it would be locked in within days. Three weeks before that, the Kremlin had already said this three-way meeting was being prepared.
And here's why Russia wants this more than China does.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Vladimir Putin wants these talks to help him get a Ukraine peace deal on terms that favour Moscow.
China's reason looks completely different. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's President, says Xi Jinping told him in Beijing ten days ago that the three presidents would probably meet in Shenzhen — but not to talk about Ukraine. And last month, China's Foreign Ministry said joining trilateral nuclear disarmament talks right now would be neither fair, reasonable nor realistic.
So three leaders. Three different reasons to show up.
People who study this, including Sun Yun at the Stimson Center, Craig Singleton at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Danny Russel at the Asia Society Policy Institute, say this is likely to end up a photograph, not a deal. Their interests are just too far apart.
The summit itself is definitely happening. APEC brings together 21 members, including America and Russia, and China is hosting it in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November. Trump is expected to meet Xi Jinping there for the third time this year. The US-China trade truce runs out in January, so that's hanging over it too.
What's still not settled? Whether Putin and Xi actually sit down with Trump together. What any of them would agree to. And whether Iran gets a say in any of this at all. No government has confirmed a date, a format or an agenda for the three-way sit-down itself.
Trump first floated this idea in the middle of October, built around denuclearisation. Three weeks on, the subject has moved to the Iran war, and nobody has confirmed any of it is actually happening.
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