Trump, Putin to Meet at APEC in China as Europe Seeks Seat at Ukraine Talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting at the APEC summit in China next week, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. The summit will take place in Shenzhen, China, on November 18-19. Ushakov mentioned that the leaders might also engage in trilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the conference.

The potential meeting comes after a recent round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, which resulted in a prisoner exchange but no major breakthroughs. U.S. representatives suggested that Europe should play a direct role in the negotiations, a demand that Ukraine and its European partners have been pushing for.

However, Ukraine and Europe will not be represented at the upcoming talks in China. Skepticism surrounds the prospect of high-level negotiations that exclude key partners while involving China. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier have both expressed concerns that a trilateral summit between Russia, China, and the U.S. would encourage Putin to continue the war.

Instead, they argue that a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be more productive. The Russian president has consistently refused to meet Zelensky face-to-face in a neutral setting, with Kyiv insisting that there can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine's presence. Zelensky has emphasized that he will never accept decisions made between the U.S. and Russia without Ukraine's participation.