U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation to discuss the recent summit in Alaska between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the interview, Sullivan highlighted Alaska’s role in national security, resource development, and Arctic strategy.
Sullivan dismissed reports of potential Russian investment in Alaska’s natural resources, emphasizing reliance on American investors and allies. “We have plenty of American investors and our allies who want to invest in Alaska’s natural resources,” Sullivan said. “We’re having a boom here. We don’t need Russian investments. We don’t need Russian money. They’re a competitor of ours when it comes to energy and natural resources and critical minerals… I would not support that.”
He contrasted the Trump administration’s approach with that of the previous administration regarding resource development in Alaska. “The Biden administration put out 70 executive orders exclusively focused on shutting down Alaska, shutting down our resource development economy,” Sullivan said. “Our own federal government, the Biden administration, sanctioned my state more than they sanctioned Iran. What we’re seeing with President Trump and his administration is a complete 180 on that. Unleashing Alaska’s resource potential has been a huge focus of the President since day one.”
Sullivan also spoke about environmental standards for resource extraction in Alaska and their impact on local communities: “Alaska has an incredible record of being able to develop our resources and protect the environment,” he said. “You walk around here, you see what a pristine, beautiful environment we have here. But we know we need jobs. We need natural resource development. So, we can do both. The entire North Slope of Alaska, the Iñupiat community, across the board, was against what the Biden administration did, which was lock up the entire National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, which was set aside by Congress to develop our resources. Then, he had the audacity to say, hey, I did this on behalf of the Native people. That was not true at all. It was an outrage.
“There’s no place on the planet that has higher standards on protecting the environment than us. If we need American energy, why would we go, like the Biden administration did, begging from Iran, Venezuela, places that have no environmental standards, when you can get it from America, from American workers, with the highest environmental standards of any place on the planet. Secondly, when you have resource development particularly in our rural communities you see life expectancies increasing.”
On military matters and Arctic security initiatives included in recently passed legislation known as One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which provides significant funding for Coast Guard assets—Sullivan noted: “We’re an Arctic nation because of Alaska,” he said.“We’re rebuilding our military.Alaska exudes military might.We’rethe cornerstoneof missile defense,and we’re goingto be cornerstoneofthePresident’s‘Golden Dome’initiative.We arethe hubof air combat power.We have over100fifth-generation fighters basedinAlaska.Wehavea brand-new U.S.Army airborne divisionuphere.So,weare buildingupourmilitarywhichisgreat,butalsobuildingoutourArcticcapabilities.”
He detailed investments from new legislation: “The One Big Beautiful Bill has an almost $26 billion investment in the Coast Guard which is biggest investment in Coast Guard history by far: 16 icebreakers coming with that 22 cutters 40 helicopters a bunch shoreside infrastructure A lot that’s going be in Alaska defend Arctic We need defend Arctic because as you and I talked about Russians Chinese are waters airspace all time including doing joint operations up here which is unprecedented.”
Sullivan pointed out increased activity by Russia and China near Alaskan territory: “Alaska is already becoming a flash point,” he said.“The number oftimes Russians Chinese are doing joint strategic bomber task forcesinourairspaceandjointnavaltaskforcesinourEEZ,inourwaters—it’shappeningonaregularbasisnow.It’sunprecedented.Theydon’tdojointoperationsanywhereelseonAmerica’sborders.That’sforsure.”
He called for increased defense spending amid global threats:“Weneedtodomoreandwecertainlyneedtokeep[defensespending]above3percentofGDPandgrowingtowards4or5percentofGDP.It’sadangerousworldrightnow.TheOneBigBeautifulBilldoesalotforourmilitary’surgentneeds.Shipbuilding–ourNavy,,ourabilitytobuildshipshascompletelyatrophied.Weaponsandammosystems.TheGoldenDome.I’vebeenworkingonthiswiththePentagon.Thisisalayeredmissiledefense.Wehavetheground-basedmissileinterceptorsinAlaska.WehavealltheradarsystemsinAlaskathatprotectthewholecountryintermsofballisticmissiles.Wearenewthreats.Weseenhypersonics.Weseendrones.WeseeithereinAlaska–spyballoons.Whatweneedtodoiupgradewithwhat’scalledalayereddefense.Notjustground-basedsystemhere,butyouworkitmorewithdifferentsystems,AegisAshoreTHAADandincludingspace-basedsystems,bothfortrackingandintercepting.Andwedothatwithanopenarchitectureintermsofsoftwaretointegratethosesystems.Alaskaiscornerstoneofallmissiledefenserightnowandwillcontinuetobeso.”
