The currently negotiated summit of U.S., China and Russia leaders next week during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Shenzhen, China’s technological capital, could be a historic event in global diplomacy.

That unique opportunity comes at a time when the vacuum left by the crashing post-cold war duopoly is being filled by a rapidly developing China and a resurgent Eurasian Russia with the world’s largest natural resources.

During his first term of office, President Donald Trump repeatedly talked about improving relations with China and Russia. Why he was unable to do that is a story for another day. Now, apparently, he feels more confident that he can work with China and Russia leaders to advance his political, economic and security objectives.

If it happens, the meeting will be an important test of whether Trump can help to set up a genuine trilateral forum to manage global security and a growing world economy.

The U.S. relations with China have been thoroughly reviewed during bilateral summits in May and September of this year, and the agreement was reached to pursue a “constructive relationship of strategic stability based on respect, fairness, and reciprocity.”

Plenty to talk about

The situation with Russia is much more complex. The legacy issues of hostility and distrust have worsened owing to wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East. Implausibly, this relationship is often described as Washington’s strategy of “flexible realism,” characterized by close surveillance, competition and transactional convenience.

The question is: What are the topics those three leaders must talk about?

Urgent security issues are wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East. Both war theaters also require a new security architecture to make possible trade, investments and viable societies.

Apart from those war and peace issues, China will most probably want to talk about the status of Taiwan, militarization of Japan and Tokyo’s alleged attempts to dismantle its treaty obligations to pursue pacifist policies.

The war in Ukraine is militarily to a large extent a U.S.-Russia issue, because the NATO military command is part of the Pentagon. Trump, therefore, plays a key role in Ukraine combat operations and in peace talks that are currently under way. And that will remain so because he is the commander-in-chief and he is also in charge of U.S. foreign policy, even though his political opponents, the Democratic Party, will take control next January of the legislative branch of the U.S. government.

As things now stand, the discussion of Ukraine war could be very short. Russia will not accept a peaceful settlement until its war objectives are met. Consequently, considerations of the European security architecture should be part of the peace deal. Also, Trump would have to come to terms about that with his European allies.

A forum to fill the U.N. void

The war with Iran is the most urgent Middle East issue. Washington wants peace, and negotiations are now under way.

China’s concern about the status of Taiwan has been thoroughly discussed during U.S.-China summits in Beijing (May 2026) and Washington (September 2026). There is a clear understanding between Washington and Beijing that there should be no unilateral changes to the status of the self-governed island.

Japan is a different story. Beijing believes that Japan -- a U.S. treaty ally with more than 100 U.S. military facilities operated by 55,000 of American active-duty personnel -- received Washington’s approval for rearming and getting rid of constraints imposed by its pacifist constitution. That is probably true, but Japan has the right to strengthen its self-defense forces, and its security is also covered by its treaty with the U.S.

Trump’s interest in denuclearization is another topic that won’t fly. China will not join nuclear arms talks unless the U.S. and Russia cut their nuclear arsenals to China’s much lower level.

A new world order? Trump will have no interest to talk about global multipolarity and the China-Russia views of a world with “United Nations at its core.”

A useless summit? No, not at all. If the leaders of the U.S., China and Russia could have an ad hoc or permanent forum to work together, wars like Ukraine, Iran and broader Middle East conflicts would be impossible or much less likely to happen.

Ukraine and the rest of East European flashpoints are a result of the chaotic breakup of the Soviet Union, the arrant nonsense of “the end of history” and, above all, Washington’s inability to deal with Europe’s centuries old hatreds.

Trump’s idea that Europe – which twice put the world on fire and created the biggest butcheries the humanity has ever seen -- should rearm and fend for itself needs serious moderation such a great powers forum can provide.

And that, of course, would be the second best to a seemingly impossible world order with “United Nations at its core.”