China does not plan to take part in a trilateral summit with the United States and Russia to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it clear that such talks cannot take place without the participation of European countries.
This was reported by Frankfurter Rundschau, citing German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
After returning from a four-day state visit to China, Steinmeier said he had personally raised the possibility of a summit involving the leaders of China, the United States and Russia during his meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing.
According to the German president, Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are likely to meet in Shenzhen in mid-November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. However, the war in Ukraine will not be on the agenda.
“In his view, there are currently no preparations whatsoever for a summit on Ukraine involving the United States, Russia and China,” Steinmeier said, describing the Chinese leader’s position.
He added that Xi Jinping had made it unequivocally clear that the war in Ukraine was a European conflict and that Europeans must have a seat at the negotiating table.
According to Steinmeier, when he raised the issue during their bilateral meeting in Beijing, Xi Jinping appeared visibly irritated.
The idea of a trilateral summit was previously put forward by Vladimir Putin, who proposed discussing nuclear arms control. Donald Trump expressed support for the possibility of such a meeting and said he would also like to raise other issues, including the war in Ukraine. These initiatives caused considerable concern in Kyiv and European capitals over the prospect of discussing Ukraine’s future without the participation of those directly affected.
