Putin, Answering Henry Huiyao Wang, Says Xi-Trump-Putin Meeting at APEC Is Possible

At the Valdai Discussion Club, the CCG founder pressed the Russian president on China’s potential role in peacemaking and a possible trilateral summit in Shenzhen.

A question from Henry Huiyao Wang, Founder and President of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization (CCG), at the Valdai Discussion Club drew one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s clearest public statements yet on the possibility of a three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump at next month’s APEC summit in China.

Speaking during the plenary session of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1, Wang, also former Counselor to China’s State Council, had this Q&A with Putin

Henry Huiyao Wang

（Mr. ) President. My name is Huiyao Wang, Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG)

You mentioned that you’re going to APEC, and we actually saw you had a very successful summit last year with President Trump, and you had a very successful summit with President Xi this year. Of course, President Xi just came back from United States, also had a very successful summit. So I’m wondering, when you are at the APEC, this possible trilateral summit. So, what do you expect China can play some more role, for example, in promoting the peace, making peace, or peacekeeping, or guarantor, whatever, so that can really facilitate this summit to be successful? Thank you.

Putin

I have no doubt that the summit will be successful.

As for the role of China, well, first and foremost, Chinese philosophy and its political thought has never had an issue of applying pressure or solving issues through military force. Well, it’s not part of Chinese philosophy. China always tries to do that through peaceful means, and we see that in the Chinese policy led by President Xi.

Could China play a role right now? Yes, of course. That is based on its increasing economic and military potential as well, on its strive to expand its zone of free cooperation. The initiative by President Xi, One Belt One Road, is aimed at precisely that. Together with China, we’re developing this initiative as well, as well as the Russian initiative, and we’re coupling them together. For example, the Russian initiative on Eurasian cooperation. We’re working together, and that brings positive results.

As for the trilateral meeting during the APEC summit, it is possible. I guess I have said that it will largely depend on China as host of the APEC summit, but yet again, it’s always useful to me to to clear up the positions of each other and so on. But most importantly, we need to find the agenda, the issues that could be part of that trilateral summit. We need to identify the topics for the discussion. Largely, that would depend on the hosts of the event, and hence President Xi.

It was a particularly timely question. Xi had just returned from his September 23–25 visit to the United States and summit with Trump, while Putin is expected to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen on November 18–19. The Kremlin had already floated the possibility of the three leaders meeting there, but no trilateral summit has been formally announced. Reuters reported in September that Russian officials had discussed the possibility while stressing that the substance and agenda would first have to be worked out.

Interfax separately reported the remarks, quoting Putin as saying that Russia was in favor of the idea in principle and that a potential meeting at APEC would depend “largely on China, as the host of the event.” It also carried his response that China “can” play a role in promoting peace.

The exchange quickly travelled beyond the room.

Reuters reported “Putin says he’s ready to meet Xi and Trump if agenda is worked out,” based on the answer elicited in the Valdai Q&A. The wire service subsequently included the same point in its broader report on Putin’s remarks that day, writing that the Russian president was ready for a trilateral meeting with Xi and Trump if an appropriate agenda could first be agreed. Neither Reuters report identified Wang as the questioner.

The line was subsequently highlighted by Sky News, which told readers that Putin “said he was ready for a trilateral meeting with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping,” and appeared in reporting carried by outlets including SBS News in Australia.

That media pickup gives the exchange significance beyond the fact that a Chinese scholar had the opportunity to address the Russian president. Wang’s question connected three issues that are likely to converge at APEC: the Xi-Trump relationship after their latest summit, Putin’s possible interaction with both leaders, and the unresolved question of whether Beijing might assume a more active role in diplomacy surrounding the war in Ukraine.

Henry Huiyao Wang has advocated versions of that idea well before the Valdai exchange. In March 2022, Wang wrote It’s Time to Offer Russia an Offramp. China Can Help With That. in The New York Times. He has repeatedly argued that China’s relations with Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Europe give Beijing unusual room to contribute to a negotiated settlement. In earlier writings and public discussions, including in Foreign Policy, he proposed widening the diplomatic table beyond Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.

His appearance at Valdai also reflects his unusually extensive participation in international policy debates for the head of a Chinese nongovernmental think tank.

He also appeared as a panelist in Responsibility: Individual or Universal? Eighth Session of the Valdai Discussion Club’s 23rd Annual Meeting.