Agencies in america that are also engaged directly or indirectly in the administration of our tax code as well. Please join me in thanking senator lee and senator rubio. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Next week the United States will begin chairing the Arctic Council, a group that sets policy for the arctic, regarding drilling and other issues. Eight countries are members of the Arctic Council, the u. S. , canada, denmark, finland iceland, norway, russia, and sweden. And this morning at the center for strategic and International Studies the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, police leesiae ia Lisa Murkowski of alaska, is speaking. Some of the issues also facing the arctic such as Climate Change, pollution and the health of the Indigenous People who live in the arctic the discussion expected to last several hours should get under way shortly. This meeting happening, this International Meeting happening as a number of other International Ministers and leaders have been in washington over the past couple of days including the financial ministers of several countries with the imf meetings going on, the president meeting with African Leaders the other day. And today meeting with the Prime Minister of italy. The two will hold a joint news conference. President obama and Prime Minister renzi today. We will cover that, that will be live on our companion network cspan2. And news this morning from the Associated Press that top japan and u. S. Trade officials plan to meet this weekend, seeking to close gaps over autos and farm trade before Prime Minister shinzo abe visits washington later this month. And this coming on the heels of the news late yesterday that key congressional leaders have agreed with president obama on legislation giving the president special authority to finish the trade accords the tpp trade authority. This event here at csis should get under way momentarily. Live here on cspan3. As we wait for this event on the Arctic Council to get under way, here at the center for strategic and International Studies, well bring you some of the comments from last night from the secretarygeneral of the u. N. , ban kimoon. I asked one of our very senior advisers who has been working longer than definitely 40 years long serving advisers. I asked him, because i have been so much troubled by all what is happening in this world, have you ever seen during your press life at the United Nations such a time when we are having so many fires taking place all around the world at once . At a time like this . I can name a list of ten hot spots immediately, in addition to continuing economic difficulties around the world. He said he has never experienced a such time and it is mostly one or two crisis happening here and there. But now we have a list ten headline news, ted headheadline crisis. In addition to this headline crisis you follow on a daily basis, we have many forgotten crisis or frozen crisis. I would not name which are the foregotten or frozen cases. You will know better than i do because you have been following all the times. We face really many crisis at once. There are minimum 50 million refugees around the world. Thats our job. To provide daily food, sanitation, water, education. This is a huge burden for many people who are sick, many people who are out of school, many children. United nations responsibility is getting more and more the United Nations has appealed 16 billion to cover humanitarian relief for this year. Almost five times what we needed a decade ago. Thats a huge increase exponential increase. Billions of people face hatred and prosecution. Billions suffer from hunger and exploitation. And billions of dollars continue to be Everyone Welcome to the center for strategic and International Studies. My name is heather conley, Senior Vice President for europe, eurasia and the arctic. Im extremely proud that the arctic is in my formal title. We here at csis in our program have a tradition. We host a public conversation just a few days before an Arctic Council ministerial. So we have had in 2011 the road to nuke. In 2013, the road to karuna. Today, we have the road to iqaluit. Senator murkowski says it is also said iqaluit. So iqaluit or iqaluit but were off to nunavit next week. And i could think of no more perfect speaker to offer some reflections just eight days before the United States assumes the Arctic Council chairmanship than a person who has been in nuke and karuna participating as part of the u. S. Delegation to speak with us and that is senator Lisa Murkowski. She serves as a member of the Senate Health education, labor and Pensions Committee as well as the Senate Indian affairs committee. So, senator murkowski, you could not be better placed to help give us these insights. Senator murkowski, i think of one of you as one of the key leaders, people seek you out to hear your thoughts on u. S. Policy toward the arctic. You fearlessly hold hear whgz the u. S. Government shuts down keeping that focus on the arctic. You are someone who encourages the administration to do more and applause them when they do yet you are very clear in your analysis when you and criticism when you think the u. S. Administration has not quite made the mark. But clearly you are tirelessly working with your other Senate Colleagues to tell them why the arctic matters to them. Were so delighted the senate now has an arctic working group with you and senator king from maine providing that leadership. You often talk about the arctic opportunity, economics scientific environmental and National Security opportunity. And clearly next week the United States has an extraordinary opportunity to show leadership in the arctic. So with your applause, will you please join me in welcoming senator murkowski to the podium. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Heather, thank you. And good morning to you all. It is always a good morning when we can gather together to talk about places of great opportunity. And i can think of no other place on planet earth where we have more opportunity than the arctic. As was mentioned, and as we all know, those that are focused on the area of opportunity next week, a week from today, the United States will assume the chair of the Arctic Council for the next two years now. This is truly an exciting opportunity for us. For those of us who have been pushing for some time now to really place the arctic in a space of Greater National priority. Certainly heather, those of you here at csis have embraced that position. And i really thank you for your continued interest, the advocacy on the arctic issues. Not only today but in the years leading up. But your presence today, those of you who have joined us those who are joining by the internet youre showing your interest again in a topic that is really quite keen right now. I dont i probably dont need to impress upon you why the arctic matters to the United States. I would suggest to you that perhaps the biggest challenge that we face right now on arctic policy is not with other members of the Arctic Council including russia. It is not with the rest of the international community, which is taking a very interested focus on the far north. It is not with the permanent participant groups representing the Indigenous Peoples of the arctic, who are truly impacted more so than anyone else by the decisions of the arctic nations. But i would suggest to you that the biggest challenge for the United States is the United States itself. We face hurdles both at a Public Interest level and a government policy level. From the Public Interest perspective, i think it is a fair question to ask why should why should somebody from alabama or from arizona care about the arctic . And i suppose there could be those that would say well why should alaskans care about policies that relate to using corn for ethanol or the security of our southwest border. I would argue back these are all national priorities, national impacts. Well, we know we repeat it all the time we are an arctic nation, because of alaska. But every state every state in our union has some kind of a stake in the arctic. Whether it is from trade nearly 20 of the u. S. Exports go to the seven other arctic nations, thats significant. We have the research activity, the National Science foundation has provided Arctic Research grants to entities based in 44 different states plus the district of columbia. I remember having a conversation with my colleague from iowa some years ago, and it was kind of a trick question to him, about arctic and arctic policy. I was able to remind him that in one of his iowa state institutions they host an Arctic Research program there, kind of caught him by surprise. But thats important that they recognize their connection. But there is also the National Security matters the arctic touches every corner. The arctic touches every corner of our nation. And we must remind everybody of this. From a security perspective, the arctic is centrally located for multiple areas of operation from the asia pacific and north american to europe and to russia. Our ability to reach each area via the arctic significantly reduces response times with increased activity in the arctic in both commercial and military levels, our ability to project power and have Rapid Response capability in the region is of even greater importance. Of course, from an economic standpoint, we talk about the shipping routes and the advantages of shorter shipping routes between europe and asia or the west coast, with the potential to cut seemingly 12 to 15 days off of transit schedules, allowing for quicker delivery ofs good goods, lower costs to consumers for all americans. So, again a benefit regardless of where you come from in the country. Our Natural Resource potential, we talked about it a lot in alaska. But we recognize that the that the resource potential in the arctic is very very high. Usgs estimates roughly 412 billion barrels of oil and Oil Equivalent natural gas lies there in the arctic. The dredge hauls we have seen suggest high concentration of critical and Strategic Elements like rare earth elements. Our neighbors, russia to the west, canada to the east, they continue with very, very purposeful national plans, combined with state interests to develop arctic resources and really pushing to advance commerce in the north. And their plans are helping to create jobs. Were seeing Economic Growth in areas that have historically faced extraordinary challenges. Even the nonarctic nations are embracing the opportunities that come with diminished polar sea ice. I think this is one area that grabs the attention of folks here at home because theyre looking at these nonarctic nations and saying, well what interest does india have here . And they should be scratching their heads about that. They should be asking that question. Because if there is an interest, from nonarctic nations why here in this country are we not looking with greater interest . But when you think about the nonarctic nations theyre reaping the transit benefits. They are looking to possibly move forward with resource extraction or exploration and development activities. And so when you think about the u. S. Position and whether we engage or whether we dont engage we need to appreciate that this level of activity is going to continue whether the United States engages or not. Increased access in the arctic also means enhanced scientific opportunities to better understand the region, its environment, its ecosystem, and how the arctic might impact other areas of a nation and the world. We talk about maintaining the arctic as a zone of peace to allow for Greater International Cooperation and coordination in a harsh environment that requires Specialized Skill and equipment. So areas that we can be collaborating and working together are important. So really, regardless of where you live in this country or what your interests may be there is a nexus. There is a connection out there to the arctic that explains why our arctic priorities should matter to the entire country. But our challenge here is enabling this nonalaska portion of the arctic to recognize that nexus. So heather mentioned that senator king and i have joined together. Were kind of book ending the country between alaska and maine. We formed a Senate Arctic caucus, not only to look at our National Arctic policies and priorities, but really to place a greater focus on each individual state and how it is connected to the arctic. We think this is something that other colleagues can take home and use to highlight our arctic opportunities with individuals and communities. So when we sent letters of invitation to the other members, it was not just lets focus on arctic together, it was accompanied with a white paper that was put together by a great arctic intern im going to do a shoutout to kyle who has done great work for us, but reminding the senators from alabama for instance that 25 of alabamas total exports go to the seven other arctic nations. To my colleague john mccain who has joined the arctic caucus because he saw that in his state of arizona 16 of total exports go to the seven other arctic nations. And so, again, making making that connection there so the arctic is not so remote, so far away. Now we all recognize the role that admiral pap assumed as the United States special representative for the arctic. I think senator kerry selected an individual whos obviously very knowledgeable about the region and someone who can bring that knowledge to the rest of the country. But he cant do it alone. So how we can work to not only support his role, but ways to develop interest in and greater awareness in the arctic is something that i challenge each of us to do. One suggestion i have this morning and ill suggest next week in iqaluit is to make the or allow the Arctic Economic Council a greater opportunity for some visibility. Take the aic on a road tour. Now, we know in this room that the Arctic Economic Council is a forum formed by the Arctic Council to bring businesses together with arctic communities, to promote greater economic investment. But i think it would be important for the aic to visit throughout the country, go to the different states, go to the city chamber of commerce, promote investment in arctic communities for Economic Development and at the same time what youre doing is raising the collective knowledge awareness and interest in the arctic. So this suggestion of bringing this to a higher level by utilizing the aec brings me to the second hurdle thats the federal governments arctic policy goals and agenda for the Arctic Council chairmanship in the next couple of years. I would suggest the effort at this point in time by our government in terms of where we are in assuming this chairmanship position is incomplete. And heather noted i have been quick to applaud the administration when i think things are moving as they should. But im here to offer what i hope is constructive criticism when we have we have not yet done what we need to do in these arenas. And i would hope if you get nothing else from my remarks this morning that you will take away that you will remember the people who live in the arctic. This must be a priority for us as an arctic nation. Now, for many who have never seen the arctic many nonarctic residents, they view the arctic as this pristine untouched environment. I described it as something akin to a snow globe that sits on the shelf and it is pretty and it is contained and it always looks the same. And please dont touch it. Please dont shake it up. But our arctic is an area that is home to nearly 4 Million People. Humans have been living and hunting and working there for thousands of years. They have been harvesting the Natural Resources of the region. They have been developing the land. They live and work and raise their families there. Just yesterday i had an opportunity to see a series of advertisements, the corporation that sits up in the north slope area.