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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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Speaker 2: For more familiar edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news Talks.

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