Trump-Putin Meeting on Sidelines of APEC Summit to Continue Ukraine War Settlement Talks
Key Facts
A Kremlin aide said Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will continue discussing a settlement to the war in Ukraine during their planned meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19, 2026. This comes as China’s foreign ministry said it is in contact with the parties concerned about the possibility of a meeting bringing together Xi Jinping, Trump and Putin, but clarified that nothing has been decided yet. The expected bilateral meeting therefore remains part of the negotiating process, while the format of a trilateral summit is still under discussion. Putin had proposed a trilateral meeting with Trump and Xi to discuss the Ukraine crisis, while the Chinese and U.S. presidents said in September they intended to attend the APEC summit in China and the Group of 20 summit in the United States. Shenzhen is scheduled to host the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting as planned, providing a possible occasion for continued political contacts on the war.
The diplomatic moves follow Abu Dhabi talks involving Ukrainian and Russian representatives, the first direct discussions between the two sides in nine months. The talks did not achieve a major breakthrough toward a comprehensive settlement, and the announced progress was limited to an agreement on a prisoner exchange. Jared Kushner said the next exchange could take place within the following two or three weeks, suggesting the humanitarian track is the most prominent practical outcome so far. Broader settlement issues remain separate from this limited agreement, as mediators seek to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. That leaves any subsequent meeting between Trump and Putin facing the test of moving from contacts to addressing the political and security issues that stalled in Abu Dhabi.
The main obstacles include postwar security guarantees for both Ukraine and Russia, the fate of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, and the role European countries would play in any final settlement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept demands to cede territory occupied by Russia in exchange for peace. This position makes borders and sovereignty a central point of disagreement in the negotiations, alongside the form of security guarantees and postwar arrangements. Kushner said one of the goals of his meeting with Putin was to obtain the Russian president’s agreement to European representatives participating in the talks. These issues show that broadening participation to include Europeans, alongside an understanding among Moscow, Kyiv and Washington, is part of the ongoing effort to advance negotiations.
In a development separate from the war track, data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed the consumer price index rose 0.7% year on year in October 2026, while remaining unchanged month on month. The annual rate of increase slowed by 0.2 percentage points compared with September, reflecting a change in the pace of consumer inflation between the two months. The producer price index also rose 5.7% year on year in October, with the annual rate of increase widening by 0.7 percentage points from the previous month. Month on month, the producer price index rose 0.7%, a reading that reflects higher producer costs during the month. The figures put the two indexes on different annual trajectories: slower consumer price growth and faster producer price growth.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics attributed the monthly rise in producer prices to higher energy prices in international markets, which fed through to domestic extraction industries. Oil and gas extraction prices rose 6.0% in October, while coal mining and washing prices increased 2.7%. These increases link the producer price reading to energy moves, while inflation and trade figures from the old draft remain outside the core developments in the Ukraine talks. For investors, energy and commodity issues remain relevant to the broader risk context, but the Chinese data do not document a direct price effect from any negotiating development. Diplomatic attention now turns to whether ongoing contacts will produce a confirmed trilateral meeting, and to the prospects for carrying out a prisoner exchange within the timeframe Kushner cited.