Key facts
- The three-way summit is planned for Shenzhen, alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.
- Albanese said he would consider China's wishes as host on joining an Apec leaders' group photo with Putin.
- Merz told EU leaders: please, no surprises, stay on Team Europe and Team Ukraine.
- Macron said forcing an unjust peace on Ukraine is a recipe for another war.
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the meeting must not become a redistribution of influence among world powers.
- Albanese signed a defense agreement with the Philippines on Sunday, the report said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese endorsed a planned three-way summit between Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, saying on November 15, 2026 that dialogue is a good thing and that Australia awaits the outcome. The meeting is planned for Shenzhen, where the leaders will gather for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, according to the report.
Speaking in Manila on Sunday, Albanese said the clear message to Putin was that the war should end. He left open the possibility of joining an Apec group photo with Putin if China, as host, wished it to go ahead, and said the Russian president should know Australia's opposition to the invasion.
European leaders voiced reservations at a meeting of EU leaders on Friday. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: "I want to state our message to the US very clearly once again: please, no surprises." French President Emmanuel Macron warned against forcing "an unjust peace" on Ukraine, calling that "a recipe for another war."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned the meeting must not become "Yalta 2, 3, 4", invoking the 1945 conference in Crimea. The historian Timothy Garton Ash called the trilateral summit, organized after a proposal by Putin in the prior month, "a sort of parody" of Yalta, while analysts said decisions on Ukraine's future or China's ambitions over Taiwan are unlikely without their involvement.
Albanese said the summit would not undercut a push by countries including Australia and Canada for middle powers to have greater influence. After the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, Australia's Penny Wong joined European and Canadian counterparts to avoid a group photo, which US officials canceled when a third of participants declined to stand alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.