Vladimir Putin has proposed a trilateral summit with President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported. Putin wants to reach a deal that ends the war in Ukraine on terms favorable to Moscow, according to sources cited by the newspaper.
The Kremlin proposed holding the trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit, set for November 18–19 in Shenzhen, China. Moscow conveyed the idea to the Chinese side through diplomatic channels, and Beijing has signaled it would not object if Trump agrees to the meeting.
Trump has not yet agreed to the idea, but he could “be receptive” given his desire to fulfill a campaign promise and end the war, a senior Trump administration official told the newspaper.
Putin raised the idea during an October 9 phone call with Trump. He views this trilateral format, which would exclude Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders, as a new Yalta Conference.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have improved recently. During the same October 9 phone call, Trump and Putin agreed on supplies of Russian diesel fuel to the United States.
Trump also declined to impose so-called “sanctions from hell“ on Russia. The law, signed September 18, allows him to impose 100% tariffs on the largest importers of Russian oil and gas and 500% tariffs on Russian goods. He said the lenient decision stemmed from a reluctance to “drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
At the same time, Trump has intensified his criticism of Zelensky. He has repeatedly called on Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries, and in an October 16 interview he said he is “not a big fan” of Zelensky, adding that it is harder to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian president than with Putin.
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