[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 79 (Monday, May 8, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2815-S2816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MINISTERIAL OF THE ARCTIC COUNCIL

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak on a couple 
of important foreign policy issues.
  I begin by talking about what is going to be happening in Alaska in 
just a few days. Really, the eyes of the world are going to be on 
Fairbanks, AK--the Golden Heart City in the middle of Alaska's 
interior--for a major foreign policy event. The United States will be 
hosting the Ministerial of the Arctic Council and will be passing the 
chairmanship of that Council over to Finland.
  The Arctic Council is an important foreign policy body. It consists 
of the

[[Page S2816]]

Arctic countries of the world--the United States, Canada, Denmark, 
Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. In just a few days, all 
of the Foreign Ministers of all of those countries will be in 
Fairbanks, AK.
  This is not the first time in recent memory that the Golden Heart 
City of Fairbanks has been on the world stage in its hosting of a 
critical foreign policy meeting of world leaders. In fact, almost 
exactly 33 years ago to this very day in 1984, on May 2, in Fairbanks, 
AK, Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan met in Fairbanks. It 
was a great meeting. You could see the chemistry between these two 
great world leaders. Right now, some historians believe that it was at 
the Fairbanks meeting of these two great leaders when the Pope and the 
great President Ronald Reagan laid out their vision and plans to 
vanquish global communism.
  America is an Arctic nation because of Alaska, and we have very 
significant, strategic interests in the Arctic--economic opportunity, 
transportation routes, sea routes that are now beginning to open 
because of receding sea ice, responsible natural resource development--
enormous natural resources of all types, including oil and gas--
protecting the environment, and respecting the culture and way of life 
of the peoples in the Arctic, particularly of the indigenous peoples, 
including their subsistence hunting rights. After a substantial 
discussion I had just a couple of days ago with Secretary of State 
Tillerson about the upcoming ministerial, I am confident this 
ministerial will focus on these important issues.
  In going forward, it is important to remember that right now in the 
Arctic, there are real people with real lives, real families, and real 
needs who live in this part of the world. They are my constituents. 
These are the people I represent. They are resilient, tough, hard-
working, and very generous. The world is going to see them this week in 
their hosting of the Ministerial of the Arctic Council in Fairbanks. I 
thank all of them for their hard work in preparing for this event, and 
I thank Secretary Tillerson for rallying all of the world's Arctic 
Foreign Ministers to Alaska in the next few days. I will be there to 
support this very important event.

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