The U.S. military base in Alaska that will host Friday’s meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is the best location to meet the security requirements needed for the high-stakes summit, it has been reported.
CNN first revealed that the long-anticipated meeting would be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, which is the largest military facility in Alaska and hosts thousands of military personnel and their families.
Why It Matters
Moscow has said it was “logical” that Putin’s first visit to the U.S. in a decade should take place in Alaska and Russian media have made much of the symbolic nature of the location, which was part of the Russian empire until 1867.
While the base offers the security needed for such a summit, there are concerns over the optics of the head of state of an American adversary, visiting a U.S. military base.
What To Know
Trump announced last week that Alaska would host a summit on August 15 with Putin with the aim of making progress in ending the war in Ukraine.
European venues such as Vienna and Geneva were ruled out because of the legal risks of hosting Putin, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes.
Putin had floated the United Arab Emirates as a location before the Kremlin agreed to meet in Alaska.
CNN said that the state capital Juneau and the city of Fairbanks had been considered but summit organizers saw Anchorage, the state’s biggest city, as the most suitable location.
The outlet said the decision was made that Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, located on the northern edge of the city, would be the only location that would meet the security requirements for the historic meeting.
The joint base was formed from the United States Air Force’s Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army’s Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010.
It is one of 12 Joint Bases that were created with the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s BRAC 2005 round, which coordinated and consolidated American military sites following the end of the Cold War.
The site is the headquarters of Alaskan Command (ALCOM), Alaskan NORAD Region (ANR), Joint Task Force-Alaska (JTF-AK), the Eleventh Air Force (11 AF), the 673d Air Base Wing, the 3rd Wing, the 176th Wing as well as other tenant units.
The base has a large military community of over 32,000 people or 10 percent of the local population.
Elmendorf-Richardson hosts planes like the F-22 Raptor, the Air Force’s newest fighter aircraft, the E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft and the C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft which is described as the “newest, most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force.”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump intends to focus on ending the war in Ukraine as his priority, but other topics such as sanctions and cooperation in the Arctic could also come up.
What People Are Saying
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “We’re going to know very early in that meeting whether this thing has any chance of success or not.”
John Bolton, President Trump’s former security advisor told CNN: “The only better place for Putin than Alaska would be if the summit were being held in Moscow.”
Nigel Gould-Davies, former British ambassador to Belarus, told Sky News: “It’s easy to imagine Putin making the argument during his meetings with Trump that, ‘Well, look, territories can change hands, we gave you Alaska. Why can’t Ukraine give us a part of its territory?’”
What Happens Next
Details of Friday’s meeting still have to be finalized, according to CNN. Before then, Ukraine’s European allies will continue diplomatic maneuvering, which includes online talks with Trump Wednesday, hoping to convince him to respect Ukraine’s interests.
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