They will sit down after both have addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, which gets underway later.
Tensions surrounding the actions of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a strategy to tackle Islamic State (IS) are both expected to be high on the agenda for world leaders at the summit.
Victoria Jones is chief White House correspondent with Talk Radio News Service in the US.
She says the meeting between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin is significant.
“President Obama basically has cut Putin off since Putin annexed Ukraine, and also Putin hasn't been to the UN General Assembly for the last 10 years” she said.
“Also the Obama administration is flummoxed over what Putin is doing in Syria right now – and President Obama has decided the best thing is to just ask him directly” she added.
