President Trump is expected to hold a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin next Thursday in Shenzhen, China, with Elon Musk among the business leaders joining Trump’s delegation.
The meeting, scheduled on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, is expected to focus on nuclear arms control and could also address the war in Iran. Officials said the initial discussions are unlikely to produce an agreement but could establish a foundation for future negotiations. Trump has called for a new nuclear arms control agreement that includes China following the expiration of the last U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty in February.
Musk is joining the delegation because of his business interests in China through Tesla and SpaceX, and his role as an adviser on economic and national security issues. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had also been expected to join the delegation, but his participation is now uncertain following the controversy involving allegations of a Chinese intelligence operation targeting him. Trump said he would welcome Huang on the trip. U.S. officials said the Nvidia controversy is not expected to be discussed during the meetings, and export controls on sensitive chip technology are not on the agenda.
Trump will depart Washington Monday and travel first to the Philippines for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit before heading to Shenzhen. He is also scheduled to hold a separate bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi, but no separate one-on-one meeting with Putin is currently planned.
