US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first-ever trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, the White House confirmed on Friday.

Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales said the talks will cover, among other issues, cutting nuclear weapons worldwide. She said Trump considers the spread of such weapons very dangerous.

A senior US official described the meeting as the possible start of a conversation on nuclear disarmament, but said Washington does not expect any agreement to come out of it.

The official also said Trump plans to raise the Iran war with Xi and Putin, but will keep the war in Ukraine off the table. The reason given is that China is not part of the separate US-Russia track on that conflict.

Trump leaves Washington on Monday for the Philippines to attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations before travelling on to China. The APEC leaders’ meeting runs from November 18 to 19, preceded by a CEO summit. Trump is due to hold a bilateral meeting and working lunch with Xi on Thursday afternoon, and will end his China visit with the three-way session.

The meeting comes after weeks of signals from the Kremlin. After a phone call with Trump in September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the possibility of a trilateral summit in Shenzhen had been discussed. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov had earlier said such a meeting would depend on China, as host, and on enough diplomatic groundwork being done. Reports also noted that Beijing has been wary of Trump’s stated wish to bring China, Russia and the US into a single nuclear arms arrangement. China has said before that it does not plan to join a trilateral deal of that kind.

Peskov has called the meeting extremely significant, but said any agreements reached cannot be imposed on other countries. Moscow and Beijing had not publicly commented on the meeting when the White House confirmed it.

Analysts say each leader has something to gain. Putin gets a valuable photo opportunity and a chance to present Russia as a superpower on par with Washington and Beijing, while the Ukraine conflict is pushed aside. Xi can show off China’s growing influence. Some analysts, however, warn the meeting could undercut Beijing’s attempt to portray itself as a defender of free trade at APEC. Trump has also been drawing closer to Xi, Putin and other leaders seen as strongmen, and the meeting is likely to boost his standing in those circles.

He has praised Putin, agreed to let Russian diesel into global and US markets, and lifted oil sanctions on Moscow.

The meeting also sets up a busy end to the year. Trump is due to host the G20 summit at his Doral resort near Miami on December 14 and 15, though Putin is reported to be very unlikely to attend.