Toni Waterman: US Correspondent on the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are gearing up for tomorrow's highly anticipated talks in Alaska.  

The US and Russian presidents will discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with suggestions a second meeting could follow if it goes well.  

The Kremlin's already dangling financial incentives, saying there's untapped potential in US-Russian relations. 

US Correspondent Toni Waterman told Ryan Bridge there are reports Trump is considering granting Russia access to Alaskan natural resources, as well as potentially allow them to access rare minerals in the territories it occupies in Ukraine, among other things. 

She says in Trump’s mind, this would be an incentive for Putin to take negotiations seriously. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It relies on Alaska, as we said, as Trump prepares

(00:02):
to mate with potent, Trump says, there's a twenty five
percent chance, just a twenty five percent chances meeting willand
and failure. But will you be able to get a
seas fire across the line? Is that even the goal
of this first meeting. Tony Warderman is US correspondent, feature
story and News in Alaska for US this morning. Tony,
Welcome to the show. First of all, what's it like

(00:23):
there right now?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, there's a lot of media, as you would imagine
here in Anchorage, a lot of people waiting outside the
Air Force base where these talks are going to be
taking place on Friday. I was downtown in Anchorage last
evening and there's just a lot of buzz. People are
excited that this meeting is taking place here. It kind
of is this prominence of Alaska hosting these types of

(00:48):
very important diplomatic get togethers that they have really a
long history of doing. And don't forget that Alaska at
its closest point is just about eighty eight kilometers away
from Russia. So it's the closest US state to Moscow,
or you know, to to Russia. And for Trump, it
seems that this made sense to him to have this

(01:11):
meeting here at the Elmendorff Richardson Air Force Base.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
And we are hearing from some of Potion's paper when
the Kremlin that this is going his focus is going
to be very much economic. He's going to try and
play to Trump's you know, business ecumen and come with
a couple of economic advisors. His finance ministers going what
can we rate into that.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, there's reports that Trump himself is going to put
forward some sort of economic incentive package to Putin, so
that may be why Putin is bringing those economic advisors,
and he probably has a couple of things up his
sleeve as well to kind of tap into Trump's feeling
that he is, you know, this big business man. But

(01:57):
the Telegraph is reporting that Trump is considering granting Russia
access to Alaskan natural resources and lifting some of these
sanctions on the Russian aviation sector, also potentially allowing Russia
to access rare earth minerals in the territories that it
already occupies in Ukraine. So Ukraine has these vast mineral reserves,

(02:20):
lithium in particular, which is used in rechargeable batteries. Trump
himself struck a deal with Ukraine in a mineral's agreement
just a couple of months ago, giving Washington access to
these mineral wealth. And also there's talk that Trump is
considering allowing Russia to develop these natural resources in the
Bearing Straight. This is that very narrow body of water

(02:43):
that separates Alaska from Russia, and it's believed that thirteen
percent of the world's oil reserves actually resides in there.
So this is an incentive for Putin to in Trump's mind,
take these negotiations very seriously, particularly since the russia An
economy has been so decimated because of sanctions. But it

(03:03):
also again appeals to Trump as a businessman.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Tony Trump has talked about a second a very quick
second meeting. Are people they're expecting that it could actually happen,
you know, all on one go.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
No, that's not the expectation on the ground that this
would come immediately after. I mean Trump is going to
fly in on Friday and fly out on Friday. This
is a very fast turnaround for him. But he said
that if these talks do go well, that he would
like to broker a second meeting very soon between the
Ukrainian President Vodimar Zelenski, who of course is not invited

(03:41):
to these talks taking place on Friday and with Putin,
and Trump said, if they want me there, I'll be there.
But his real goal here is to try to get
some sort of ceasefire in place that paves the way
for a permanent peace deal. But as we have come
very close to the meeting, Trump and his team are

(04:01):
continuously trying to tamper down expectations. They're calling it now
a listening exercise that Trump is going to go into
the room. He's going to really try to feel out
Proutin and see if he's serious. And if he's not serious,
Trump says that he's going to impose very severe consequences.
He hasn't said exactly what those consequences will be, and
of course he has threatened this kind of stuff in

(04:23):
the past and has never followed through. But the goal
here is to kind of get this process underway.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Tony, appreciate your analysis this morning, Tony What I'm on
US correspondent in Alaska for US feature story and news.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
For more familiar edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to
news Talks.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
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