United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will officially meet for the first time on Friday in Hamburg, Germany, where the G20 summit is being held. The meeting will be a formal one, instead of the more common practice of holding informal conversations between world leaders on the sidelines of the international event, representatives of both presidents said.

The White House on Tuesday called it a “normal bilateral meeting”, while the Kremlin called it a “full-fledged seated meeting”, The Guardian reported. Relations between the two countries are tense given the continued US’ sanctions against Russia for invading Crimea, an ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and the prevailing situation in Syria, where the US and Russia are on opposite sides of a civil war while both also target the Islamic State group in the region.

The last time a US President met Putin was Barack Obama in 2015. However, Russia launched its first strike in Syria almost immediately afterwards, pushing back any efforts at a stalemate between the two historically sparring countries. However, Trump has called for closer ties with Russia ever since he began his presidential campaign and repeatedly praised Putin. This has led some critics argue that Trump is too soft on Putin and may even be maliciously manipulated by him.