It’s published
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Trump’s arrival
US President Donald Trump arrived in Anchorage, Alaska after boarding Air Force 1 on a seven-hour flight from Washington.
Trump arrived at the joint base of Elmendorf Richardson, the venue chosen for the highly anticipated meeting, just before the Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s plane landed.
The base was a key US military property once tasked with overseeing the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and rarely received non-military visitors, let alone two sitting presidents.
Putin’s arrival
Putin arrived for a high stakes meeting with Trump after aboard the Russian president’s jet for about nine hours from the capital Moscow.
The Russian leader brought in several senior officials on his trip, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his top foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.
They are some of the aides who agreed that Trump had joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkov.
handshake
Both leaders disembarked the plane at the same time and headed down the red carpet. The red carpet was laid out to intersect in the center.
After a short walk from the plane, Trump arrives at a meeting point on the red carpet waiting for Putin. The US President was smiled from afar as he approached Putin, offering him a burst of three small birds before he met.
Trump warmly greeted Putin – despite his typical tag and pull-style handshake, he patted his counterpart several times on the shoulder before heading out to the camera for a small photo session.
They then approached the stage where they had taken a few more photos as the US media present on the site posed questions. They then entered Trump’s presidential car, called the “Beast.” There, they were portrayed as sharing laughter and smiles as they were driven together to the summit venue.
Closed Door Talk
The leaders then entered the venue at the base where the delegation joined.
Media representatives were temporarily allowed in the room to take photos before the leader began the discussion.
The debate lasted about two and a half hours and no breakthrough occurred, but Putin and Trump say they agreed to a common foundation where a potential peace route could be established.
The two described their meeting as very constructive and respectful.
Press conference
The two presidents then spoke to the media at a joint press conference for just under 15 minutes, where they provided a summary of the consultations.
They then agreed that more negotiations will be needed in the coming weeks to build on the momentum established at the Alaska Summit as President Putin is proposing Moscow as the venue for his next meeting.
Trump laughed, “Yeah, that’s funny, I don’t know, I’ll get a little fever on it, but I can see that it could be happening.”
Additional sources •AP
