US President Donald Trump will hold his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a combined US Air Force and Army installation in Anchorage, Alaska.
The US faced challenges in securing a venue that would meet the standards for the summit, as Alaska is experiencing its peak tourist season, reports TASS quoting CNN. After considering options in Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks, organisers determined that only Anchorage had the necessary infrastructure.
The White House reportedly had hoped to avoid holding the meeting on a US military facility, but Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson ultimately proved to be the only location meeting all requirements.
The days leading up to a high-stakes meeting with the Russian leader should be expected to be filled with extensive negotiations over agenda, however, Trump himself has said he is approaching the meeting as a “feel-out” session, with few advance expectations for how it will proceed.
This stands in contrast to the last time an American president met with Putin; during President Joe Biden’s 2021 summit in Geneva, the date and venue were announced three weeks ahead of time with months of planning between American and Russian officials preceding it.
On August 8, Trump announced that he expected to meet with the Russian president in Alaska on August 15. Later, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed the plan, saying the leaders would focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.