By Trevor Hunnicutt and Ryan Patrick Jones
WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump said on Monday he is open to three-way arms-control talks with the leaders of China and Russia as soon as next month, raising the prospect of an unprecedented meeting and a major diplomatic gambit for the US president.
"We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "If President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it. I'm sure we'd talk about other
things like trade too."
Trump has tried to thaw frosty relations with Beijing and Moscow as those non-Western powers grow closer. A three-way meeting would also raise alarm from Europe to Asia over private deals that weaken Washington's transatlantic and Indo-Pacific alliances.
But a deal struck between the three countries could also lower global tensions. An end to Russia's war in Ukraine could resolve the biggest threat in decades to European security, and a deal on arms would bind the three nations with the biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
In recent days, Trump has moved to warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, announcing a diesel-fuel deal and signing an order on Friday waiving key sanctions on Moscow. Trump has also sought stable relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who in turn has nurtured close ties with Putin.
So far, Trump has not delivered on a campaign promise to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
The White House has been discussing for weeks a possible meeting between the leaders focused on denuclearization on the sidelines of the November 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Putin later pitched using such a meeting to negotiate an end to the four-year-old Ukraine conflict in a manner that would favor Moscow, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the discussions. Putin's suggestion came during an October 9 phone call with Trump that yielded the deal on Russian diesel.
Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin said that the potential meeting had come up in talks.
The three leaders have met separately but never held formal talks together.
The White House did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Russian and Chinese embassies in Washington also did not reply to requests for comment.
Trump's diesel deal with Putin and the executive order waiving sanctions on Moscow have drawn criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has warned they would embolden Putin and prolong the war.
Speaking about the possible meeting on Monday, Trump said, "I would do it, not so much for Ukraine because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine." He added that "Zelenskiy is not helping matters much," and that "it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine."
Moscow launched one of its broadest air assaults in months overnight, cutting power to more than half a million households and damaging energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Ten people were reported killed.
TRUMP SEEKS NUCLEAR TALKS
Last week, Trump told reporters he thought a denuclearization deal with Russia and China was possible, but that it "doesn't have to be this year." It's not clear how advanced any talks between the countries are.
Russia has the most stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired earlier this year. The New START treaty, signed in 2010, allowed a single extension, which Putin and former US President Joe Biden agreed to for five years. Any new extension would require an executive decision to voluntarily extend the limits of the treaty.
China's foreign ministry said last week that its "nuclear strength is by no means at the same level with that of the US and Russia" and that it would be "neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage."
Trump has already agreed to attend the APEC summit in Shenzhen next month, marking his second trip to China this year and his third visit with Xi over the same period. China, Russia and the United States are all members of APEC.
On Monday, Trump downplayed the idea of another high-profile meeting in China, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"I get along with him very well, and I'm not sure that anybody's asking for a meeting," he said.
Trump previously said he planned to meet with Kim this year. North Korea has publicly indicated that it is not open to talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Ryan Patrick Jones; editing by Bhargav Acharya, Colleen Jenkins and Stephen Coates)
