The Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I would welcome the majority leader to stay and listen to my comments this evening because I am speaking about the Arctic, and as a Senator from New York, he could certainly appreciate the role that the Arctic plays.

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. The majority leader is invited to the Arctic at any time of his choosing. January is a fine time.

Mr. President, I do share with colleagues--they hear it from me quite frequently--that the United States is an Arctic nation. Hailing from the fine State of Georgia, in the South, the Presiding Officer might not think or appreciate the role that your State plays in the Arctic, but each of our 50 States--each of our 50 States--sees benefit, sees opportunity because we are an Arctic nation. And we are an Arctic nation by virtue of the fact that, in my home State of Alaska, parts of it sit above the Arctic Circle.

It is our status as a nation. It is our good fortune, I think, as a nation. We have opportunities to come together as Arctic nations and work on its common challenges and shared opportunities, and we had such an opportunity just a couple of weeks back when, here in Washington, DC, we were able to be an Arctic host nation in welcoming the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region for our conference. We held it here in the Capitol.

I think many have heard of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council is the governing body. It is the primary institution for intergovernmental cooperation in the Arctic. You may know that, currently, as of this moment, the Arctic Council is chaired by Russia. Obviously, it is very challenging right now, at a time when Russia is engaged in this horrible war against Ukraine.

I will have an opportunity to speak, in just a few moments, to that, but as we think about the Arctic Council, I think it is also important to recognize that the standing committee--the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region--is also a body that is quite important. It facilitates a biennial gathering of representatives from the various parliaments and legislatures of the eight Arctic nations. There are also permanent participants, indigenous groups that are part of the Arctic parliamentarians, as well as representatives from the Nordic Council and other councils. As an entity, then, the standing committee helps to make recommendations to the Arctic Council itself.

But the standing Committee is made up of policymakers, again, from these Arctic nations coming together, talking about the issues in our respective regions and how together we can guide the broader Arctic toward a more sustainable future. I have been involved as a member of the standing committee for nearly my entire tenure here in the U.S. Senate.

I am the United States' sole representative on the standing committee, and I am now very privileged to serve as its vice chair and have done so now for the past 3 years.

We hold our conferences in, obviously, other parts of the Arctic. We have been to Helsinki in Finland. We have been in Reykjavik in Iceland. We have been up to Norway, Sweden, and several times in Alaska itself, one meeting in Anchorage and then a ministerial meeting held in Fairbanks.

And then, as I mentioned, just a couple weeks ago now, we held our conference for 2023 here in Washington, DC. It is not exactly an Arctic capital here--I get that--but it is a place where we could all come together to convene and discuss the challenges and the opportunities that we face in the Far North.

So we were proud to welcome representatives from five Arctic nations at the conference. In addition to the United States, we had delegates present from Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

(Mr. KELLY assumed the Chair.)

And I am going to share with you and those here in the Chamber a map of the Arctic region. I think, when most people think about the Arctic, they think about the globe, and there is the top of the globe. You have that piece up there that looks so far and so remote. The Presiding Officer is probably the only one in this Chamber who has had an opportunity to see the Arctic as it really is. The Presiding Officer was up there in space and had a chance to see the Arctic region laid out as it is.

Here is Alaska here, Canada, Greenland, and Iceland, just on the outside; obviously, Russia, with the vast, vast territory above the Arctic Circle; Finland, Sweden, Norway above here.

But not only do we include in our delegation representatives from the Arctic nations, but we also include those from the European Parliament.

We had a representative from the Nordic Council, the West Nordic Council, the Saami Council, the Gwich'in Council International, the Aleut International Association, and the Arctic Athabaskan Council.

We were able to meet over in the Capitol Visitor Center for a morning of open discussion. We began with remarks from the chair of the Standing Committee, Aaja Chemnitz Larsen. Aaja is from Greenland. She is a member of the Danish Folketing.

We take care of the business and presentations from not only our perspective here in the United States. We had a good strong discussion about the United States and our role, how we have stepped into a greatly amplified role when it comes to Arctic leadership, personnel, policies, as well as infrastructure.

Following our meetings, we were able to go over to the Norwegian Embassy and held a policy-focused panel. We had a reception with the Fulbright Arctic Scholars and a pretty robust Arctic working dinner. We called it our Arctic salon to kind of close out the day. But it was an opportunity to really come together and share many of the issues that these Arctic nations are dealing with today.

Obviously, climate change was front and center as part of these discussions. We talked about the threats from coastal erosion and increasing wildland fires that we are seeing in the tundra and taiga areas, the challenges that a warming climate brings with food security issues, and, certainly, from Alaska's perspective, the challenges that we are seeing with our fisheries--a subsistence identity that is key and central to so many of not only our Native people around the State but so many who live a subsistence lifestyle.

So many of us, as Arctic nations, share common challenges like lack of core infrastructure, our need for sustainable economic development, and the priorities for our First Peoples. We talked about what we see with the rise of shipping and trade, as well as new industries, such as mariculture. There are a lot of real positives that I think we are seeing, but we are also seeing significant shared challenges.

So many are facing outmigration of young people. We are certainly seeing that in my State, but also in the Far North, in Canada and in some of the other areas, and, certainly, an issue in Greenland.

We talked about housing shortages and what that means in Arctic environments. We talked a lot about mental health issues and the challenges that so many in the northern regions face, and public safety issues.

There was so, so much that was on our plate, and, again, talking about challenges but also talking about some of the best practices. And, of course, you have to talk about the geopolitical landscape and how it is impacting these shared challenges and really how we move forward to address them.

And you can't avoid this. You can't avoid these geopolitical discussions because the largest Arctic nation, Russia, is typically part of the standing committee. They are one of the eight Arctic nations. But this year they were not present. They were not welcomed. They were not represented due to their own doing, due to this catastrophic war in Ukraine.

And the Presiding Officer and I know that is what happens when you move to declare war against a free and sovereign nation. There are extensive, there are far-reaching consequences. So they are not part of the discussions within the Arctic Council. They are not part of the discussions within the Standing Committee of the Arctic Parliamentarians. But I think we know that even though they are not part of these discussions, Russia continues to lean in, to exert its influence, its dominance, in the Arctic.

After Finland's accession into NATO, we saw Russia step up its military drills in the Arctic. In recent years, we have seen increased military buildup. Again, even while Putin is prosecuting this awful criminal war in Ukraine, he is pushing resources to, again, put his military influence in an area that, for a period of years, has been relatively dormant.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Russia has signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation with China in the region, signaling very clearly that, perhaps, for the multilateral discussions in the Arctic that they had been part of, as with the Arctic Council, now they are seeking to pursue a more bilateral strategy.

So Russia is absolutely--absolutely--not stepping off the gas when it comes to its engagement and interest in the Arctic. So even though Russian parliamentarians might not be sitting with us, it is not as if we can ignore the elephant in the room.

I think that the conversations that the parliamentarians had, again, a couple weeks ago, are worth sharing here, worth an entry into the Congressional Record, because the future of the Arctic is literally being defined as we speak--as we speak.

There is more attention that is being paid to the Far North by more people and more nations with more varied interests than we have ever seen before, and I think that there is a greater need for us here in the United States for cooperation and sharing best practices with friends and those with similar interests.

Just last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, Ms. Kamikawa. She is the head of the Polar Caucus, and she shared with me Japan's plans to build an icebreaker designed for research in the area.

They are not an Arctic nation. Japan does not pretend to be a near- Arctic nation, as China has self-labeled themselves, but they do believe that the area, the region is so significant and so important, and so how can they be a helpful participant? How can they help in that shared research? So to be able to cooperate in these ways, I think is key.

I think those of us here in the United States, especially those of us who serve as policymakers, need to be aware of those other non-Arctic nations that are looking at the Arctic with a heightened sense of interest and desire to be either a participant or how they might take advantage of the Arctic.

Don't get me wrong: We have got a very strong and inviting commitment from nearly all of our Arctic partners to work together to find solutions to the challenges and the issues that we face. I believe equally strongly that the United States has got to be a leader in advancing those solutions. For a long while, the United States was lagging behind. I had suggested we were not at the table, we were not in the game; but I can assure you, we have taken some very important steps. We have made progress. It has been noted by other nations, and it is good to see.

We have taken some steps to put people and policies in place that will guide our actions in this very, very dynamic region. We are investing billions of dollars now in core infrastructure.

Again, I need to remind colleagues, we are not talking about earmarks or even congressionally directed spending for Alaska. We are talking about national security investments--investments in our national Arctic strategy.

You can't have coverage of the U.S. Arctic if you don't have a deepwater port. Right now, our deepwater port is down in the Aleutians--Dutch Harbor. It is 800 to 1,000 miles to get yourself up there into the Arctic.

So we have moved ahead. The Port of Nome is coming on. It is going to be significant. It is going to be important. Hopefully, there will be just a system of deepwater ports in the Arctic.

Investment has been made in broadband connectivity. You cannot have this extraordinary mass and be blanked out when it comes to Arctic communication--so everything we have done to invest not only in communications to communities in the North Slope but what it means to be in these waters--to be in these skies.

I have had a pretty good day and a half. I just came back this afternoon from Alabama and Mississippi, where I was able to visit shipyards that are in the process now--Alabama shipyard is building out offshore patrol cutters--OPCs--that are going to be significant to us in the region.

Even more exciting--I have been waiting for this for, I swear, 20 years now--but I was able to go to Bollinger Shipyard down in Pascagoula and to actually see--actually see--where we are going to be building--hopefully, cutting steel by the end of this year--the first polar security cutter. It is the first polar security cutter that this country has built since the early 1970s. We are well, well, well overdue.

We have authorized now six icebreakers. We have fully funded two. We are pushing hard to advance commercially available icebreakers. My hope is that we will get that resolved this year. The Coast Guard is committed to it. The administration is committed to it. We are all-in, and we need it. We need it because, right now--this is no great secret--but the United States has no icebreaker--no polar-strength icebreaker that is in our waters.

We do have a polar-strength icebreaker, but she breaks out Antarctica. That is the requirement. She has been doing it for a long, long time. But that vessel doesn't see these Arctic waters. We have a medium-strength vessel that is very capable, the Healy, but we need to have our polar security cutters. We need them in the water. I was really encouraged to see the forward movement. It is coming. These ships are coming, and it is going to make a difference. They are part of our Arctic strategy.

We have got an updated national strategy for the Arctic region. This came from the White House. We have got a new Goals and Objectives Report from the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Every branch of the military has now developed its own strategy for the Far North. We have reestablished the Arctic Executive Steering Committee featuring the Deputy Secretaries or their equivalents from the Departments in the key Agencies. We have revived the Arctic Energy Office at DOE. We stood up the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. This is located in Anchorage. It is part of the Department of Defense; but like the other security centers that look out over the Pacific or Europe or Africa, this is specific and unique to the Arctic only with brilliant people who are thinking about where we sit in this extraordinary space.

We have also convinced the State Department to establish an Ambassador at Large for the Arctic region, as many, many countries have already done. So the President has nominated a great guy. He is a fellow Alaskan, Dr. Mike Sfraga, to be the first person to hold this position. I am really looking forward to the Foreign Relations Committee--hopefully, they will be able to consider his nomination later this month and get him confirmed.

I met with the Ambassador from Norway. Norway is set to assume the chairship of the Arctic Council on the 11th of May. This week, it is going to transfer from Russia to Norway.

I asked the Ambassador what can the United States do to be most helpful to Norway as you resettle the Arctic Council. And he said: Confirm your Arctic Ambassador. So we need to do that.

We made important progress in recent years, but what has happened so far is really only the beginning of what we need to do in and for the region, as we continue to face major challenges that I think take all of us to address.

The Arctic's future must always be determined by the people of the Arctic. But having said that, there is good reason for us here in Congress to pay attention and a role for us to play in how to guide its future. And I have a pretty long list in that regard.

I am dusting off my Arctic Commitment Act. It is a comprehensive package focused on security, shipping, research, and trade policy improvements.

I mentioned the Arctic Ambassador position. We need to codify the Arctic Ambassador position into law. We need to grow our diplomatic capacity and our soft power.

I feel pretty strongly. We need to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty. We need to do this. We need to ensure that our rightful claims in these areas aren't snapped up by those who want to control as much territory and resources as possible.

We need to do more to invest in our defense. Again, I mentioned our icebreakers, but also our Coast Guard, a naval presence, a missile defense, and advanced fighter jets that can respond to all threats, whether it is Russian Bear Bombers that are coming over just right here--coming right there--or whether it is these unidentified aerial objects the whole country is tracking as they are coming right up through the Bering Strait and across Alaska. We are on the frontlines.

We need to invest even more in core infrastructure like water and wastewater, broadband--I mentioned--so that all those who live in the U.S. Arctic have access to basic necessities and a modern standard of living.

We need to tap into some of the new opportunities, including for food security. I have got a measure that I am going to be introducing--we call it our ``Arctic ag'' bill--focusing on not necessarily traditional agriculture, so to speak, but things like mariculture, which will contribute to our growing food economy.

We need to produce the resources that we need now and that we will need for decades to come. This means not just the recently approved Willow Project that was approved within the National Petroleum Reserve--and we are thankful that the administration saw the benefit of that--but we also need to be looking to the commercialization of our vast natural gas resources, the build-out of our renewables and clean technologies like advanced nuclear power, the approval of new mines that can produce the minerals that we are going to need that is going to power our future. We need to do all of this while we work to address the issues of climate change by dramatically working to reduce our emissions and also finding solutions for adaptation which is just as critical.

We have to be ready for new threats as they arise. As I mentioned, the enhancer, that growing relationship between Russia and China strengthening their ties--what we are seeing coming out of Russia right now is a move to ship oil to China through the Northern Sea Route. So they will be moving their oil through the Northern Sea Route, coming right through the Bering Straits here to deliver--to go down to China.

When you look at choke points. It is 57 miles--57 miles--between mainland Russia and mainland United States right here--not a lot of room. We have got two islands across the middle: the Big Diomede and the Little Diomede, one Russian and one United States. But I am worried that what we may see are non-Polar Code-compliant tankers coming through these waters at a time when Russia is looking to do everything they can to evade Western sanctions. But I am concerned that we may see an accident. We may see some kind of a spill. And our response capacity is extraordinarily limited--potentially thousands of miles away.

So there is a lot that we are watching; there is a lot that we have got to do. And I think that there is still not enough of us giving the Arctic the attention that it deserves. It is still harder than it should be to secure critical Arctic policy and investment.

I know more and more Members of Congress are visiting the region. I think, maybe, I may have gotten a commitment from the majority leader to come and visit the Arctic--maybe not in January--but he says he likes the Arctic. But people need to see it for themselves to understand what we are talking about. So welcome all of you.

But for those of you who aren't able to visit and, frankly, don't understand the significance of the region, I think--I think some still ask the question: Why bother? Why is the Arctic important? Why does it matter?

And the answer to that--my answer to that is that the future of the Arctic matters more to the future of the Nation than most can possibly imagine. The Presiding Officer probably well-recalls a famous general by the name of Billy Mitchell. And General Mitchell, back in 1935, said:

I believe that in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. I think it is the most important strategic place in the world.

Billy Mitchell said that in 1935, and I think it is fair to say that the future has arrived, because General Mitchell is absolutely right. Alaska is the most strategic place because of our location, because we are part of an Arctic nation, and because we are sitting right on top of the world. We are sitting in the center of it. We are, oftentimes-- oftentimes--on the frontline of our Nation's sovereignty and defense. Now new cargo, new shipping trade routes are creating challenges, yes-- I have mentioned--but also economic opportunities that can deliver benefits all over the country--the investment in ships and planes and manufacturing facilities and everything else that that involves in creating jobs and furthering opportunities in every State in the country.

When I was at the shipyard this morning, they had a map of the Lower 48 States with the number of dollars--and I don't believe it was just dollars--but I think it was the number of dollars that comes to each State because of investments that are made purchasing, whether it is raw materials or built parts. You look at--48 States on that map now; there wasn't Alaska. We are not building any of that yet, but we are going to be hosting this. So it points to the value, whether you are from Arizona or whether you are from Georgia, in that you have a stake in the Arctic.

As fellow Arctic parliamentarians, we say, in coming back to our conference, what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic. We know that it isn't frozen in time. It is not frozen in place. It really affects every single one of us and, I think, more by the year. I think the sooner folks realize that, the better, and the time is really now.

On the heels of our meeting of the standing committee, as I mentioned, later this week, we will transition the chairship of the Arctic Council from Russia to Norway. We are hoping that transfer is going to be very quiet, very uneventful. There will be, I think, a fair amount of anticipation and, hopefully, relief on the 12th of May that we will begin to really renew our intergovernmental collaboration as Arctic nations, with Norway at the helm, working together to work through some common challenges but to do so much more to share best practices. I think here in the United States, we meet this with determination and commitment as we work to do our part as an Arctic nation.

With that, I invite the Presiding Officer as well to come to the Far North and to the Arctic.

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