Key facts
- The South China Morning Post reported the three nations could commit to controlling AI in nuclear arsenals as part of a wider global governance agenda.
- The newspaper said the war in Ukraine and denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula had largely shaped the discussions, citing unnamed sources.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Beijing wants each leader to read a prepared statement, while the Trump administration seeks freer exchange.
- The Journal reported Trump wants to raise nuclear arms control, an issue it said Beijing has long been reluctant to discuss.
- A Kremlin spokesperson said on November 8 that consensus would be needed before any meeting could take place.
China, the United States and Russia have spent weeks in back-and-forth discussions to settle the agenda and protocol for a meeting between their leaders on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Shenzhen, the South China Morning Post reported on November 11, 2026, citing sources it did not name. The newspaper said the talks could yield a commitment to control AI in nuclear arsenals as part of a broader agenda on global governance.
The South China Morning Post reported that the war in Ukraine and denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula had largely shaped the discussions. It gave no further detail on the state of the negotiations.
The Wall Street Journal, in a report relayed by Meduza on November 10, said Washington and Beijing disagree over the format and agenda for the three-way meeting, planned for November 18-19. It reported that Putin proposed the meeting to Trump during their most recent phone call on October 9, and that all sides have tentatively agreed to hold it.
According to the Journal, Beijing wants a tightly scripted summit in which each leader reads a prepared statement, with as little room as possible for discussion, and would prefer separate bilateral meetings if the format is not settled in advance. A Chinese official said Beijing is willing to discuss Ukraine and other major issues in that format, the Journal reported. The Trump administration is pushing for a looser format that would let the three leaders exchange views more freely, it said.
The Journal reported that Trump has made clear he wants to raise nuclear arms control, but that Beijing has long been reluctant to engage on the matter, seeing such talks as risking its status as the weaker party. A Chinese official said Beijing would not agree to participate in such a meeting, according to the Journal.