President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska, for their first summit in more than seven years, CNN reported Tuesday.
After a scramble to secure a venue during Alaska's peak summer tourist season, U.S. officials determined that the sprawling military installation was the only site in the state capable of fulfilling the extensive security requirements of the high-profile meeting, according to the report.
The base sits on the northern edge of Anchorage and will provide the backdrop for what the White House is calling a "listening session" between the two leaders, CNN reported.
"I think that that's important to know that the president is viewing this ... as something that was fact-finding in a way to see exactly what was possible," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters Tuesday in response to a question from Newsmax.
"So, we know what his agenda is, which is what it's always been. We know what has bothered him, which is this – the killing of civilians," Bruce added. "We know that he has been not happy with President Putin with his actions, and what's happened in Ukraine. We know that he is going to inform President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and European leaders about what happens at this meeting, and then we will all find out what happened."
The choice of Alaska — once part of the Russian empire — came after weeks of back-and-forth between Washington and Moscow. Russia rejected European options in light of the 2023 war crimes warrant for Putin from the International Criminal Court, while the U.S. steered away from a Middle East venue.
The final decision came down to Hungary or the United States, and U.S. officials were "pleased and somewhat surprised" when Putin agreed to meet on American soil, according to the report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have been in talks this week to hammer out details, though Trump has said he's approaching the meeting as an opportunity to "look at this guy across the table" and make his own assessment. A one-on-one session with only translators present is part of the plan, the White House said.
Trump and Putin last met in July 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.