Russian diplomat sees possible Russia-US-China summit as positive push

A possible trilateral meeting of Russian, US and Chinese leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit could give international relations a strong positive push, Russia's state news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

Marat Berdyev, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador at large, told the Izvestia daily that such a meeting "could send a powerful positive signal."

Berdyev said the challenging geopolitical situation in the world, which he attributed to Western globalist elites, made such an impetus very useful.

He said the key parameters of such a dialogue would need to be clarified through close preliminary consultations, in which China, as host, would play a special role.

In his view, a meeting of this scale would focus on the most pressing international challenges that require collective responses from the world's key powers.

The Chinese city of Shenzhen will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings on Nov. 18-19.

It will be the third APEC summit held in China, after Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended both.

Putin will attend the Shenzhen summit and hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, their third meeting this year.

Putin visited Beijing in May, and the two leaders held a bilateral meeting in August on the sidelines of the 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

A trilateral meeting between the Russian, Chinese and US leaders may be arranged on the sidelines of the Shenzhen summit.

APEC is a forum of economies around the Pacific Rim that promotes trade and economic cooperation among its members.