China Says It Is in Contact on China-US-Russia Leaders’ Meeting

The notable signal here is procedural rather than substantive: confirming contact while declining to characterize expectations leaves the trilateral format unverified even as it is publicly discussed. That gap matters for anyone pricing geopolitical risk around the APEC gathering, since a leaders' meeting of this composition would carry weight well beyond the summit itself. Whether the communication firms into an announced meeting, and on what terms, is the open question.