Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Toni Waterman: US Correspondent on the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

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Toni Waterman: US Correspondent on the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: It relies on Alaska, as we said, as Trump prepares
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  Speaker 1: to mate with potent, Trump says, there's a twenty five
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  Speaker 1: percent chance, just a twenty five percent chances meeting willand
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  Speaker 1: and failure. But will you be able to get a
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  Speaker 1: seas fire across the line? Is that even the goal
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  Speaker 1: of this first meeting. Tony Warderman is US correspondent, feature
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  Speaker 1: story and News in Alaska for US this morning. Tony,
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. First of all, what's it like
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  Speaker 1: there right now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of media, as you would imagine
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  Speaker 2: here in Anchorage, a lot of people waiting outside the
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  Speaker 2: Air Force base where these talks are going to be
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  Speaker 2: taking place on Friday. I was downtown in Anchorage last
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  Speaker 2: evening and there's just a lot of buzz. People are
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  Speaker 2: excited that this meeting is taking place here. It kind
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  Speaker 2: of is this prominence of Alaska hosting these types of
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  Speaker 2: very important diplomatic get togethers that they have really a
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  Speaker 2: long history of doing. And don't forget that Alaska at
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  Speaker 2: its closest point is just about eighty eight kilometers away
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  Speaker 2: from Russia. So it's the closest US state to Moscow,
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  Speaker 2: or you know, to to Russia. And for Trump, it
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  Speaker 2: seems that this made sense to him to have this
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  Speaker 2: meeting here at the Elmendorff Richardson Air Force Base.
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  Speaker 1: And we are hearing from some of Potion's paper when
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  Speaker 1: the Kremlin that this is going his focus is going
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  Speaker 1: to be very much economic. He's going to try and
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  Speaker 1: play to Trump's you know, business ecumen and come with
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  Speaker 1: a couple of economic advisors. His finance ministers going what
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  Speaker 1: can we rate into that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's reports that Trump himself is going to put
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  Speaker 2: forward some sort of economic incentive package to Putin, so
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  Speaker 2: that may be why Putin is bringing those economic advisors,
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  Speaker 2: and he probably has a couple of things up his
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  Speaker 2: sleeve as well to kind of tap into Trump's feeling
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  Speaker 2: that he is, you know, this big business man. But
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  Speaker 2: the Telegraph is reporting that Trump is considering granting Russia
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  Speaker 2: access to Alaskan natural resources and lifting some of these
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  Speaker 2: sanctions on the Russian aviation sector, also potentially allowing Russia
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  Speaker 2: to access rare earth minerals in the territories that it
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  Speaker 2: already occupies in Ukraine. So Ukraine has these vast mineral reserves,
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  Speaker 2: lithium in particular, which is used in rechargeable batteries. Trump
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  Speaker 2: himself struck a deal with Ukraine in a mineral's agreement
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  Speaker 2: just a couple of months ago, giving Washington access to
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  Speaker 2: these mineral wealth. And also there's talk that Trump is
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  Speaker 2: considering allowing Russia to develop these natural resources in the
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  Speaker 2: Bearing Straight. This is that very narrow body of water
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  Speaker 2: that separates Alaska from Russia, and it's believed that thirteen
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  Speaker 2: percent of the world's oil reserves actually resides in there.
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  Speaker 2: So this is an incentive for Putin to in Trump's mind,
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  Speaker 2: take these negotiations very seriously, particularly since the russia An
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  Speaker 2: economy has been so decimated because of sanctions. But it
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  Speaker 2: also again appeals to Trump as a businessman.
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  Speaker 1: Tony Trump has talked about a second a very quick
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  Speaker 1: second meeting. Are people they're expecting that it could actually happen,
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  Speaker 1: you know, all on one go.
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  Speaker 2: No, that's not the expectation on the ground that this
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  Speaker 2: would come immediately after. I mean Trump is going to
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  Speaker 2: fly in on Friday and fly out on Friday. This
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  Speaker 2: is a very fast turnaround for him. But he said
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  Speaker 2: that if these talks do go well, that he would
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  Speaker 2: like to broker a second meeting very soon between the
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  Speaker 2: Ukrainian President Vodimar Zelenski, who of course is not invited
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  Speaker 2: to these talks taking place on Friday and with Putin,
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  Speaker 2: and Trump said, if they want me there, I'll be there.
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  Speaker 2: But his real goal here is to try to get
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  Speaker 2: some sort of ceasefire in place that paves the way
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  Speaker 2: for a permanent peace deal. But as we have come
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  Speaker 2: very close to the meeting, Trump and his team are
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  Speaker 2: continuously trying to tamper down expectations. They're calling it now
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  Speaker 2: a listening exercise that Trump is going to go into
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  Speaker 2: the room. He's going to really try to feel out
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  Speaker 2: Proutin and see if he's serious. And if he's not serious,
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  Speaker 2: Trump says that he's going to impose very severe consequences.
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  Speaker 2: He hasn't said exactly what those consequences will be, and
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  Speaker 2: of course he has threatened this kind of stuff in
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  Speaker 2: the past and has never followed through. But the goal
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  Speaker 2: here is to kind of get this process underway.
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  Speaker 1: Tony, appreciate your analysis this morning, Tony What I'm on
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  Speaker 1: US correspondent in Alaska for US feature story and news.
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