Ranking Member Cantwell Statement at Hearing on Arctic, Greenland

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Committee, delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing today on the Arctic and Greenland. Cantwell stressed the importance of a new Arctic Strategy that solidifies American leadership in the Arctic and the need for collaboration with longstanding U.S. allies to meet the threats from Russia and China.

Sen. Cantwell:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding this important hearing on the Arctic and Greenland, America’s economy, and national security.

The United States is an Arctic nation. My colleagues, Senator Sullivan and Senator Murkowski, said that early and often. Senator Murkowski and I took a trip to the Arctic and Greenland in 2019 with several of our colleagues, and she has been a strong voice calling for a more robust American leadership in the High North.

My state has long standing ties to the Arctic. When you talk about 125 years ago in the Klondike Gold Rush, and how everything sent to Alaska came through Puget Sound. The 200 vessels homeported in Seattle that are part of a multi-billion dollar fishing industry in Alaska, there is a good reason that the Magnuson-Stevens Act, that is in place to protect [our] fishermen, is named after two senators who served as chairmen of this Committee.

During the Cold War, America recognized that we had a vital economic and national security interest in the Arctic. Now, as climate change opens up new sea routes at the top of the world, we must do so again. New shipping channels could shorten shipping times between Europe and Asia by two weeks or more.

Tourism, developing infrastructure -- could drive new economic opportunities in remote communities and our Arctic allies could help replace China as the beginning of a new critical mineral supply chain for semiconductors, batteries, and defense technologies.

However, as the ice melts, we also face growing competition from our international competitors and adversaries. Russia and China are both increasing their military presence in the Arctic. I'm sure we'll hear about that today.

Just last year, they conducted a joint military exercise in the Far East and Arctic. The reality is, they want to be able to control the sea lanes, block freedom of navigation of our commercial shipping, and our military. They want to be able to tap into and sabotage undersea cables. And they want to move their stealth submarines and launch hypersonic missiles undetected.

Russia is also engaging in illegal fishing in Alaskan waters and operating a shadow dark fleet to evade oil sanctions. And following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it became impossible to reach consensus on the Arctic Council.

That is why I believe Mr. Chairman, in partnership with Canada and Greenland and NATO, the U.S. must renew and recommit to an Arctic strategy that solidifies America's leadership in the Arctic.

Instead of starting a new trade war, America must reinvigorate and expand cooperation with our allies, including Canada and other Nordic countries. We should be pushing to expand NATO's mission in the High North. With Finland and Sweden joining the alliance, seven of the eight Arctic nations are now NATO members.

Our good model is how NATO recently launched its Baltic Sentry operation, where allies work together to monitor and promote early warnings of threats from foreign adversaries and protect shared subsea infrastructure. I’ve encouraged that.

In the recent weeks, NATO Secretary General Rutte has called for a more proactive NATO engagement in the region to strengthen our collective defenses. The reality is, the Arctic is too vast to police alone. It will take time and investment by both the U.S. and our like-minded allies to meet those threats from Russia and China.

Russia has already more than 40 icebreakers. I'm so glad to hear the Chairman's commitment to icebreakers, I'm sure Senator Wicker is too --he is from a place where many of these icebreakers are built. While the U.S. Coast Guard only has two, and the Navy has zero.

Thanks to the bipartisan support of this committee, the Coast Guard will soon operate a third icebreaker, but additional investments are desperately needed, the Chairman mentioned this, to make even this one additional ship operational. Congress has authorized six more icebreakers, but that is still only a fraction of what is required. So, I commend President Trump for saying that, quote, “We're going to order about 40 Coast Guard [big] icebreakers,” end quote.

We will need those icebreakers. In fact, I, 20 years ago, brought then Commandant Thad Allen to meet with several of our colleagues who [were] blocking these icebreakers. The future of the U.S. leadership, commerce, and security in the Arctic will require investments in these Coast Guard and military capabilities.

We need [Coast Guard] shoreside infrastructure, including icebreaker homeports, new MH 60 helicopters, more C130s, and [Navy] P8s in the region, and other Navy and air assets.

That's the brawn -- but we also need the brains to win the High North.

So, I hope this committee can work together to explain why massive NSF layoffs and budget cuts, because I believe they are short sighted. For example, the University of Washington had a $400,000 study on how glacier breakups off the coast of Greenland contributed to coastal flooding -- something I think we would all be interested in.

This seems particularly short sighted when we need to understand Greenland better than ever before.

In World War II, it served as an essential refueling for military aircraft flying between North America and Europe. Cryolite mined in Greenland was used to make U.S. fighters and bombers. And during the Cold War, Greenland served as a home to the U.S. early warning network against Soviet missiles. Once we had 10 military bases in the world's largest island. Today, the only the space base remains.

The good news is, if we stop talking about buying Greenland, and instead [can] work quickly to reestablish U.S. interests. There have been, I think, since 1951 many updated agreements between Greenland and the United States, the one most recently, 2018 I think, during the first Trump administration -- these agreements are in place that authorize dual use investments, new port infrastructure, fiber optic cable, radar, and power plants.

Over time, Greenland can be a rich source for critical minerals, but there are still high barriers to that development, something I'm sure we'll hear about at today's hearing. But we can also support the expansion of tourism and infrastructure with airports, roads, and hotels, and I'm sure, as our witness from the Wilson Center, Dr. Pincus will point out today, Greenland has a tremendous untapped hydro power potential.

Someday, Greenland could become home to data centers to give us the edge [in] the race for AI and I plan to introduce legislation that would authorize the Department of Energy to provide feasibility studies on the development of Greenland's hydropower potential.

I also believe that we should direct the EXIM Bank and other agencies to provide support for more U.S. infrastructure investments in Arctic nations like Greenland. And as I said at the last hearing, the United States needs to do more to improve our strategic investments to counter our adversaries. I believe cooperation is the best interest of the United States and the Arctic is too vast to just police alone. Hopefully, these coalitions and collective defenses can help expedite the U.S. interests there and support the scientific research and national security.

So, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and continuing to make sure that America, maybe this Greenland [discussion], Mr. Chairman, will elevate this discussion that Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, and myself have been trying to get so many people to realize we are an Arctic nation. We have interests there, and we need to continue to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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