Trump and Putin are seeking a trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping to discuss Ukraine and nuclear weapons, but China fears a new Yalta. Reuters.
The leaders of the US, Russia and China are likely to meet next week in Shenzhen, China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. However, the negotiations on the format of the meeting and the agenda have not yet ended.
According to Reuters, Vladimir Putin expects to use the meeting to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine on Moscow's terms. Donald Trump wants to end the tripartite nuclear arms control agreement.
For Chinese President Xi Jinping, such a meeting is associated with serious political risks.
Beijing is not interested in discussing limits on its nuclear arsenal on an equal footing with the United States and Russia. Washington and Moscow each have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads, while China has about 500, according to estimates cited by Reuters.
"I think it's fair to say the Chinese don't want to discuss arms control with the US. And they certainly don't want to do it together with the US and Russia," said former senior Joe Biden administration official Edgar Kagan.
According to him, participating in this kind of negotiation means recognizing China's status as a major nuclear power, which must meet similar restrictions.
At the same time, Moscow wants to put the Ukrainian issue on the agenda of the tripartite meeting, but Beijing opposes such a proposal.
The US official also told Reuters that Trump would probably not raise the issue of the war in Ukraine, because the trilateral format is not suitable for discussing it.
The possible meeting has raised concerns in Ukraine and other countries, which fear a repeat of the Yalta conference in 1945, when the leading powers agreed on the world order and spheres of influence after the war.