Washington, Beijing And Moscow Struggle To Set Format For Leaders' Meeting
China and the United States have so far failed to agree on the terms of a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.
Beijing wants the meeting to follow a strictly structured format, with each leader delivering a prepared statement and opportunities for open discussion kept to a minimum. According to a Chinese representative, China would be willing to discuss Ukraine and other key issues under these conditions. Without such prior arrangements, Beijing would prefer to hold separate bilateral meetings.
The Trump administration, however, is pushing for a more informal format that would allow the three leaders to exchange views more freely rather than deliver a series of prepared monologues.
Kurt Campbell, former US Deputy Secretary of State and head of the consulting firm The Asia Group, believes that such a format could be risky for the Chinese leader and make the course of the talks unpredictable.
It should be noted that the APEC summit is scheduled to take place on November 18-19.
Nuclear arms control has emerged as another point of disagreement. Trump wants the issue included on the summit agenda, but China is not prepared to take part in such negotiations.
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