Seeking to reassure US allies, a bipartisan group of senators is departing for a tour of Arctic nations. And this time they are leaving the men behind.
From the eight senators to their staff and military liaison officers, the group is to be entirely female as they pay diplomatic visits to government officials in four Arctic nations, witness the challenges for militaries in the region and visit a Norwegian archipelago so remote they would need escorts to avoid run-ins with polar bears.
“I want them to experience, first of all, the awesomeness of the Arctic,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is leading the trip alongside Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Photo: AFP
The trip was born out of the senator’s work to stabilize relations with US allies in North America and northern Europe at a time when US President Donald Trump has taken an aggressive, go-it-alone stance in the region. Just this week, the Pentagon announced that the US would pause participation on a joint board with Canada for continental defense that dates back to World War II.
Murkowski and Shaheen said that is the wrong approach in an Arctic region that has increasing strategic value and unique challenges.
“We will reassure our allies that we recognize and appreciate the importance of our allies and partners in the Arctic as in so many other areas,” Shaheen said, adding that she expected the group to discuss “what more we can do as members of Congress to support those relationships.”
The group is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, with Senators Cindy Hyde Smith, Katie Britt and Cynthia Lummis making up the Republican side, and Senators Maggie Hassan, Kirsten Gillibrand and Catherine Cortez Masto from the Democrats. Departing next Friday, they plan to visit Arctic or sub-Arctic regions in Canada, Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago that is one of the northernmost inhabited areas on earth, and Iceland.
Murkowski and Shaheen said they want the group to come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for Arctic communities that are experiencing the effects of climate change, as well as the unique challenges of conducting military operations in the region.
“It’s to understand what it means to go into a remote, isolated community that has no access by road,” Murkowski said, adding that the group would see how military sites need airplane hangars because aircraft cannot be kept outside overnight in the Arctic cold.
NATO has tried to foster cooperation in the High North through a series of joint military exercises, especially as nations such as China and Russia increase their activities there.
As climate change thins the Arctic ice, it could create a northwest passage for international trade as well as reignite competition with Russia, China and other countries over access to the region’s mineral resources. The region is also host to a number of undersea cable projects that hold strategic value.
The group is also to visit indigenous communities that have lived in the region for generations and understand the environment. Murkowski said she hopes the senators come away from the trip “excited and intrigued and hopefully inspired.”
As Trump threatened to take Greenland earlier this year, Shaheen and Murkowski teamed up to push for legislation that would prevent the US from attacking any fellow NATO member. They are among the lawmakers pushing to include language in this year’s defense legislation that would prevent the Trump administration from withdrawing military commitments to NATO allies.
“I also want to know if there are policy directives that we should be thinking about,” Shaheen said, adding that “it will be great to have a strong bipartisan group there to discuss what we might want to do when we get back.”
For some of the nations the group would be visiting, a high representation of women is nothing new. Iceland’s parliamentary body is comprised of about 46 percent women — one of the top ranking countries globally for female political representation.
Research suggests that “when women are the negotiating table, that agreements that are made have a much better chance of lasting for a longer period of time,” Shaheen said.
She added that data shows that representation of women in government leads to more stable societies, as well as investments back into their communities.
“There are very real reasons why we need to make sure that women are at the table,” she added.
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