In a follow-up to Saturday’s three-hour meeting between President Putin and President Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov hinted at summitry that could take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China in November. Interviewed by Russian state television, Ushakov mentioned the possibility of a Putin-Trump meeting. On September 1, he told the television interviewer that Putin and President Xi Jinping of China had discussed a possible three-way conversation among those two heads of state and Trump.
“Each of the leaders [Putin and Trump] plans to attend the APEC summit,” Ushakov said. “We will, of course, try to schedule separate meetings for our leaders, including, of course, with Mr. Xi Jinping. And if the opportunity arises, our leader will also meet with the U.S. President,” he said. Trump had previously indicated that he was also prepared for a new summit with Putin, but said that he prefers to wait until the Ukraine conflict is nearing its end. Ushakov said that the content of a Putin-Trump conversation would depend on its duration: “I don’t know whether they would talk for 15 minutes or an hour and a half; who knows, how the schedule will work out.”
Last week, in his September 1 interview with the same state TV reporter, Ushakov had brought up the prospect of a meeting of three presidents—Putin, Trump, and Xi Jinping of China. He reported that Putin and Xi, during their bilateral talks at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, had discussed that possibility. “As for organizing a three-way meeting,” Ushakov explained, “that ultimately is more up to the hosts [China]. If they can organize such a meeting, which would require a certain amount of diplomatic preparation, then I think that such a meeting could take place, and would most likely be quite useful.”
