Paul Fuhs: What can Alaska gain from Trump and Putin talks next week in our state?

By PAUL FUHS

What an honor to have these talks between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin here in Alaska on Aug. 15. More than any other US state, Alaska has been negatively affected by the latest European conflict, the Ukraine war. The stakes for us in a successful negotiated settlement are enormous.

Breaking: Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska

Of course, these talks must be seen in the overall historical relationship between the United States, Russia and Alaska.

While Europe has had thousands of years history fighting and learning to hate each other, the only war on our own soil was of our own making: the Civil War. European countries weighed in. Few Americans are aware that Russia supported the Union, while Brittain and France supported slavery and the Confederacy.  

In the US war for our own independence, Russia supported the Americans while the rest of Europe supported Brittain. After the 9/11 attack, the first one to call and pledge a cooperative effort against terrorism was Vladimir Putin. And let’s not forget that Russia was America’s strongest ally during World War II in the fight against European fascism. On historical balance, no country has been more loyal to the United States than Russia.

While the US and Russia are the only two major nations that have never been at war with each other, the battle against ‘communism’ played out in a number of proxy wars, including Vietnam and our funding of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan who were fighting Russia, which developed into the Taliban, which attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Following the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, major headway was achieved on the economic front as a captitalist Russia invited thousands of Western companies to invest in industries there.  Alaska was one of the leaders in establishing these operations as described below.  The profits made in Russia were returned to Alaska.

Unfortunately, due to the Ukraine conflict, economic sanctions against Russia were applied, which deeply impacted Alaska’s economic interests and have actually been completely ineffective.

On the global front, the US, as an Arctic nation, has published a ‘National Strategy for the Arctic’ that states its goal to seek an “Arctic that is peaceful, stable, prosperous and cooperative”.  To our detriment, Ukraine related sanctions have fundamentally discarded this outlook.   

Here are the current relevant Alaskan and Arctic issues affected by sanctions:

1. Climate change data. Due to sanctions on Arctic cooperation, Russia is no longer allowed to provide climate data from their section of the Arctic which is 40%. I attended the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan to represent the Northern Forum.  The climate modelers there said their climate models no longer work without the Russian data. It is difficult to see how this prohibition can be justified since climate change is regularly presented as an “exisential threat” to the planet, and even the human race.
2. Destruction of trans Arctic cooperation in the Arctic Council, Arctic Economic Council, Northern Forum (of which Alaska is a member) and the Arctic Mayors Forum. Full resumption of cooperation is necessary to fullfil the promise of these organizations that are dedicated to cooperatively addressing Alaskan and Arctic issues.
3. Resumption of opportunities for Alaska oil field service firms that before sanctions, had strong opportunities for work in Russian oil fields.  With our substantial experience in Arctic oil field development and mining, we brought environmentally responsible practices there and brought the profits back to Alaska. These contracts were all cancelled by sanctions and the Chinese moved in to take their place.
4. Due to European sanctions against buying Russian oil, it is now being diverted to Asian markets in China, India, and Japan, with crude oil now sailing through ice covered waters just off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Strait.  This constitutes a high level threat to food security in the Arctic.  Sanctions against maritime insurance coverage in the Arctic were also applied, further intensifying the risk of inadequate funding for oil spill cleanup.
5. Joint Arctic Coast Guard Forum response planning exxercises with Russian participation were cancelled and must be resumed.
6. A trans Arctic coordinated vessel tracking, monitoring and emergency response system is needed to substantially reduce these risks on the Northern Sea Route. This system should be modeled on the Marine Exchange of Alaska and the Norwegian Coastal Administration prevention systems.
7. Price cap sanctions on Russian oil create an incentive for Asian nations to burn even more fossil fuel at a time when the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet.  In addition, this mandated lower pricing creates an energy price deficit, harming the economic competetiveness of Alaska’s gasline export project.
8. Fisheries research and cooperative management regimes in the Bering and Arctic oceans with Russia were cancelled.  As the climate warms, fish are moving further North. In the meantime, Russian fisheries operations North of the Bering Strait go on without restrictions.  While Norway speaks strongly against Russian cooperation, it maintains its own cooperative research and co management of fisheries agreements with Russia in the Barents Sea and this should be a model.
9. The fluctuations in Alaska’s salmon stocks are an ongoing mystery.  We know how many juvenile salmon leave our rivers and hatcheries, but very little about what happens in the open ocean.  A joint research project was initiated with Russia to determine food and predatory interactions in the Gulf of Alaska within the EEZ’s of both countries.  Due to sanctions, the project was cancelled because the research vessel was Russian.  This important research must be resumed.
10. Due to sanctions, Russia has increased their quotas of fish caught and dumped on the market, creating a destabilizing economic disaster for Alaskan communities and fishing businesses who lost $1.8 billion last year.  Counter sanctions have cost Alaskan fishermen $14 million per year in salmon caviar sales.
11. Alaska previously had convenient air routes directly to Russia, through Petropavlavsk, Hkabarovsk and Sakhalin which were cancelled.  This has harmed business, tourism, education, and cultural exchanges.  Reciprocal landing rights must be renegotiated.
12. The closure and reduction of diplomatic consulates and visa services of the US and Russia has damaged tourism operations, trade, business and native family visitation.  These closures should be reversed.
13. Since the construction of US icebreakers is many years off, we need to have agreements for the use Russian and Chinese fleets in emergency response situations in the Arctic:  A protocol for ice breaker response, ‘Uber for Icebreakers’ so that the nearest ice breaker can respond, regardless of flag.

When there is eventually a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict, we should be very proactive in encouraging our local, state, and federal political leaders to eliminate these damaging sanctions and to support an immediate resumption in Arctic cooperation.

It is such an honor to have these talks taking place in Alaska. Let’s wish the very best for successful negotiations, and a resumption of our historical cooperation with all of our Arctic neighbors including Russia.

Paul Fuhs is the former mayor of Dutch Harbor, Former commissioner of Commerce and International Trade for Alaska, former chairman of the board of AIDEA, the Alaska Energy Authority, and the State Bond Bank. He currently serves as the Arctic Goodwill Ambassador for the Northern Forum, the transArctic coalition of regional governments and states.

Paul Fuhs: Supreme Court ruling limits green Lawsuits, clears path for Alaska projects

Paul Fuhs: The real agenda behind the attack ads on Sen. Sullivan

Paul Fuhs: Let’s get real about Alaska’s economy