Kremlin Teases Possible Trump-Putin-Xi Meeting In Beijing

The Kremlin stated on Monday that a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is possible if both leaders are in Beijing at the same time this September.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin plans to travel to China to attend events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. However, he noted that Moscow has not received any information regarding Trump’s potential attendance, but he teased the possibility of a face-to-face meeting.

“You know that we are preparing for a trip to Beijing, our president is preparing for this trip… But we have not heard that President Trump is also going there, to Beijing,” Peskov said when asked on the matter of if the two leaders could meet, including even possibly a three-way format with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“If it so happens that (Trump) is there, then, of course, we cannot rule out that the question of the expediency of holding a meeting will be raised,” Peskov continued.

Interestingly, a report in The Times (UK) just days ago said that China has been angling to play hosts precisely to such a historic meeting, as tensions with Washington continue to thaw.

“A series of trade deals between Washington and China has reversed President Trump’s hostility to Beijing and raised suggestions that he will be invited to meet both President Xi and President Putin for a summit in September,” the report began.

“A visit by Trump to Beijing would mark a striking U-turn after his months of criticism of China over America’s trade deficits and his accusations of its complicity in drugs trafficking,” The Times continued.

One popular Chinese analyst laid out that this would be a win for each nation involved:

China and the United States co-operated closely during the war, when both were attacked by Japan, and analysts as well as some ordinary Chinese have urged Xi to seize the opportunity and host both Trump and Putin for a three-way summit.

“Why not align Trump’s visit with the September 3 parade?” Jin Canrong, one of China’s most prominent nationalist commentators, said in an interview with Guancha, a Shanghai-based news website. “From 1941 to 1945, China and the US were allies against Japanese militarism.”

“If President Trump visits China and attends the parade on September 3, it would send a strong, positive signal to the world. The image of the Chinese, Russian and American leaders standing together could be a powerful message of peace and stability.”

Certainly President Trump has been looking for some kind of breakthrough related to stalled efforts to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine, as well as seeking to heel ties between the US and Moscow. And he does like the optics of ‘going big’. A trilateral Putin, Xi, Trump summit would be very big and unexpected indeed.

Of course, the US national security establishment would positively hate it and mainstream media pundits would run “appeasing Putin” and “appeasing Xi” type headlines in response, but this is to be expected and likely has little impact among the public anymore.