China said Wednesday it would keep promoting talks to end the war in Ukraine but had no information on a possible meeting with U.S. and Russian leaders, leaving the proposal without Beijing’s confirmation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing would continue working toward a political settlement. She gave no details about a meeting among the three countries’ leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the possibility of a meeting had been raised, but no concrete proposal or agenda had been discussed.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had floated a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China. No meeting among the three leaders has been agreed.
Trump said Monday he had not agreed to meet Putin and Xi but would attend if they wanted to. He said nuclear disarmament would be his main focus and that he would try to help end the war whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated or not.
Ukraine has objected to talks about the war that exclude Kyiv. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in earlier comments on the proposed format that such a meeting would encourage Putin to keep fighting. He favored talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States.
The APEC leaders’ meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18-19. No date has been set for a meeting among Trump, Putin and Xi.
