Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to attend the G20 summit in Miami, Florida in December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, adding “we hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept.”
If the Russian leader does accept it will be his first time attending the summit in-person since 2019, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and could provide an opportunity for a direct meeting with US President Donald Trump, who he last met in Alaska last year.
But ahead of the G20, there is another annual international forum where both Putin and Trump could also meet: the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Shenzhen, China this November, hosted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The annual summit groups together 21 countries accounting for more than half of global trade, and has previously seen several landmark meetings between world leaders and high-stakes talks.
Last year, Trump skipped the summit, which took place in Gyeongju, South Korea, but he did meet China’s Xi on the sidelines in a major meeting that made progress in easing their crippling trade dispute.
Putin is expected to attend the summit in China, according to Russian state media –– his first appearance at APEC since 2017 in Vietnam, where he and Trump briefly spoke and shook hands.
A Kremlin aide recently raised the prospect of a trilateral meeting between the leaders of the world’s three major powers at APEC in November, state news agency TASS has reported. The likelihood of such a meeting between Trump, Putin and Xi, is perhaps slim, but if it were to go ahead, would be unprecedented.
Trump has yet to officially confirm his attendance at APEC, but has previously hinted at a return to China this year.