In the run-up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China on Nov. 18–19, and amid rumored preparations for a trilateral summit of Presidents Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on its sidelines, the potential significance of such a meeting for the world is beginning to dawn on some.

Former Italian Prime Minister and ex-European Commission President Romano Prodi, addressing the XIX Verona Eurasian Economic Forum, said: “Everybody is talking about the Shenzhen meeting next month, a meeting of great powers … This could become a meeting where rules for the future will be set and red lines that must not be crossed will be laid down. I’d jokingly call it a ‘little Yalta,’” reported TASS. The Yalta summit took place in 1945 between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, where the “Big Three” held crucial discussions about the post-war world.

Prodi called it a mistake to exclude Europe from global geopolitical and economic processes, but did admit that Europe is being left out because of its own fragmentation and weakness, as well as the Ukraine conflict.

In another indication, Nicolai N. Petro, professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, told TASS in an interview: “If there is a three-way summit between Trump, Xi, and Putin, then it will be worth speculating about what it might accomplish and about comparisons to the Yalta Conference of February 1945. At that point it might be fair to say that peace efforts are gaining momentum because such a meeting suggests an effort to anchor the resolution of the Ukraine conflict within a new world order.”

Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said such a summit would not rise to the level of a “new Yalta,” but told Vesti: “Everyone seems to be interested in this meeting. It will probably be a historic meeting to some extent. This is the first time the leaders of three such large countries will meet.”