Ranking Member Cantwell Q&A at Hearing on Arctic, Greenland

 VIDEO | AUDIO

Sen. Cantwell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again, thanks for holding the hearing, and Dr. Pincus.

So, Greenland is a NATO ally, correct? We have military relationships now that allows us to be there, and we have all these other relationships that we could take advantage of, both on minerals -- it's, to me, there's just a cheering section in Congress that wants us to understand the Arctic.

And we've been yelling about it, I guess, or cheerleading for icebreakers for a long time, because it starts way over on our side of the country, before you get to Greenland.

We are seeing the intimidation, the activities of Russia and China as it relate to our fish, intimidation in our waters. And so for us, it doesn't start and end at Greenland. It is this issue, you and others articulated, of a melting ice that gives a Northwest Passage, that gives a whole new trend of interest.

But when you think about what you mentioned, everything from space to natural resources, what do you think is the most important thing we could do now to bolster that alliance? Is it a more broadened NATO agreement, because with this Baltic Sentry operation where they were trying to stop what Russia is doing, is it some other capability right now on this communication issue.

And then, while I'm not against the mineral agreement or enhanced mineral agreement, it seems to me that the hydro relationship, given what Mr. Marchese said about the ice being this challenge, here, ice is our friend. Ice is creating a ton of hydro, and if you do the sea cable, it seems to me that getting a stronger NATO relationship, getting our expansive view of how this fits into the larger Arctic picture and taking advantage of the easy layups would be things that we should do.

Dr. Pincus: Thank you for that question, Senator. Again, I'll go back to my earlier point that the U.S. has a range of policy options, and the first step is to define the problems that we are focused on really carefully, because it's hard to talk about answers if we're not all in agreement on what the problem is.

But I think --

Sen. Cantwell: I call that the correct environmental assessment.

Dr. Pincus: But in terms of policy options, I think the acquisition of Greenland is a really interesting option that deserves very careful scrutiny and weighing.

I do think that it is a challenging option. I think there are some practical hurdles that would have to be overcome, and we can have a discussion about what those would be. I do think cost is an issue.

But I think there are a range of options that, again, can be weighed against the problem, the risk we face, and our relative prioritization of it. And so if we put territorial expansion sort of at one end of the spectrum here, and then we can think about what might be smaller scale policy options that would be a less total solution, but might be –

Sen. Cantwell: Let me ask you something differently. If we weren't discussing Greenland and what the President said, would you be arguing for a larger NATO relationship and a larger Arctic agreement between the United States and NATO allies?

Dr. Pincus: I think the NATO alliance is becoming more active in the Arctic region without that agreement, and NATO is a large alliance that moves fairly slowly. So it has taken some significant steps to be more active in the Arctic in the last few years, and that process has been balanced against the ongoing demands of the war in Ukraine.

Sen. Cantwell: Well, you could say we were slow on icebreakers too. So, again, this is this awareness issue of we're trying to get the whole country to understand this challenge.

Dr. Pincus: I will say that the U.S. and Denmark have a bilateral defense agreement for the defense of Greenland from 1951 that did not include Greenland. That agreement was expanded in 2004, the Igaliku Agreement to better include Greenland’s voice.

But 2004 is 20 years ago, and Greenland has taken many steps towards independence since then. So a new, perhaps trilateral defense agreement that is responsive to U.S. security concerns, as well as the new political powers that have devolved to the Greenlandic government, I think, is something that in the short term, certainly could also deserve some attention.

Sen. Cantwell: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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