In a move drawing global attention, President Donald Trump will host Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 for high-stakes peace talks — a choice of location that is anything but random.

The 49th state offers a rare loophole in international politics: It lets Putin step onto U.S. soil without risking arrest under his 2023 International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment, which is recognized by more than 125 nations but not the United States. As The Washington Post reports, that legal wrinkle makes Alaska one of the few viable sites for the two leaders to meet face-to-face.

Beyond the legal calculation, the gathering marks the first U.S.-Russia summit on American soil since the 1988 Governors Island meeting/ That was a brief but symbolically important meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan, President-elect George H. W. Bush, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The primary purpose was to reduce tensions at the close of the Cold War and to set the stage for continued arms control negotiations.

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