Peskov was responding to a query on a possible three-way meeting in China next month between Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping (Photo: ANI).
Moscow on Tuesday called for an urgent restart of dialogue with Washington on strategic nuclear stability, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warning that the world is, for the first time in history, without a legal framework to govern the area.Peskov was responding to a query on a possible three-way meeting in China next month between Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said the complexity of the issues meant negotiations should begin at the earliest, as any such talks were bound to be prolonged.The Kremlin had earlier indicated that the three leaders could meet on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen next month.
The disclosure followed a Wall Street Journal report claiming Putin was seeking the trilateral format to push a peace settlement favourable to Moscow.Trump open to meetingTrump signalled on Monday that he was prepared to travel to China for a meeting with Putin and Xi, adding that the agenda would centre on denuclearization, though the Ukraine war could also come up.Asked by reporters whether he would take part in a meeting with the two leaders to discuss Ukraine, Trump said: “I would do it, not so much for Ukraine, because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.
They haven’t been doing much.”“We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearisation,” he added, AFP reported.Beijing, meanwhile, did not confirm the plan. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she had no information about any such meeting, AFP reported.Ukraine, however, has voiced strong reservations, arguing that a meeting held without its participation would work against efforts to end the war.
Foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Monday that such a gathering would only embolden Putin to keep up the conflict.“A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the US, and Russia could help end the war sooner. A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China, and the US would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war,” he said in a post on X.The Kremlin, for its part, acknowledged that a final peace agreement could not be reached without Ukraine’s involvement. Asked whether Putin believed a deal was possible without Kyiv at the table, Peskov said it was obvious that Ukraine would have to be part of any final settlement.“Of course, a final settlement is impossible without the participation of someone in Kyiv who is prepared to take responsibility,” he said, as cited by Reuters.