Analysts on possibility of China-US-Russia trilateral talks at APEC

All eyes are on whether next week's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting would lead to a historic meeting of the leaders of China, the US and Russia. Though there is no word yet on whether trilateral talks will materialise, one scholar believes even a brief get-together would still benefit China.

In the past, many bilateral talks took place on the sidelines of APEC meetings.

Ahead of last year's APEC Gyeongju Summit in South Korea, President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Trump's "ice-breaking" meeting in Busan reached a one-year trade truce which helped pause escalating tariffs and export controls.

This year, it is China's turn to host APEC under the shadows of the US-Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars.

Observers are closely watching whether a trilateral meeting could materialise among the leaders of China, the US and Russia in Shenzhen. Both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier expressed interest in taking part.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is maintaining communication with relevant parties.

An international relations scholar said the current timing is not quite ripe for such talks.

Michael Zeng, Head of the Department of Public and ternational Affairs of CityU, says what Trump cares is controls on nuclear weapons with breakthroughs on the Russia-Ukraine conflict while Russia cares the most about its own security issues.

But Zeng says the US has no motivation to pull off something that substantive on China's home turf.

MICHAEL ZENG: "Now all three countries have tremendous disagreements, and some of them are very structural. And it's not really the time to have that. Having said that, we all know Trump is a very unpredictable guy, right? He did have some sort of kind of summit with Russia before. Unless the US push very hard for reasons that we don't know, I think it's unlikely."

But Zeng says even with just "corridor diplomacy" -- meaning some spontaneous, discreet conversations between the leaders -- China could reap benefits by showing its diplomatic influence this time.