US President Donald Trump personally welcomed Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the joint base of Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. The US military base is the venue for a high stakes meeting between the two leaders, Rt reported.
Trump arrived at the Air Force base shortly before Putin. A large sign reading “Alaska 2025” is on display at the edge of the base’s red carpet, with four American fighters located on either side of the carpet.
Only the President and his aides will be involved in the initial consultation, while the full delegation will join later. Trump and Putin will also hold a joint press conference after negotiations.
The summit could last six to seven hours, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. While the Ukrainian conflict is widely expected to be a central topic of the summit, according to Moscow, the conference agenda will cover more than that.
According to Peskov, two other presidents will be debating.
In addition to Putin, Russian delegations include Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrei Belusov, Finance Minister Anton Silanov, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, and President Kiril Dmitriev, who was a key figure in the Ukrainian settlement process.
The US delegation includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA John Ratcliffe, Special Envoy of Ukraine, Middle East Steve Witkov, secretary of Treasury Scott Bescent, Treasury Secretary Howard Rutnick and Caroline Levitt.
According to the White House, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegses will also be taking part in the summit for an expanded bilateral meeting and lunch.
It was Putin’s eighth visit to the US and his first visit in about a decade. The last time the Russian president was in the United States was in 2015, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he discussed it with then-President Barack Obama.
MNA