Eight United States senators to visit Svalbard on Arctic tour

Eight United States senators, all women and split evenly between the Democratic and Republican parties, are due to land at Longyearbyen Airport on Saturday for a visit to Svalbard. Staff and military liaison officers travel with them. The stop is part of a tour around the Arctic. The tour also covers Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland and Norway, and aims to build closer ties with allies.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, co-leads the group with Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. Before the delegation left on Friday, Shaheen told the Associated Press that the senators want to reassure allies. She said they also want to discuss what Congress can do to back those relationships. Katie Britt, Cynthia Lummis and Cindy Hyde-Smith are the other Republicans. Kirsten Gillibrand, Maggie Hassan and Catherine Cortez Masto are the other Democrats. Murkowski and Shaheen have earlier cooperated on legislation meant to stop the United States from attacking another NATO member, Denmark included. This is the second Svalbard delegation Murkowski has led. After the 2019 trip she said she wanted the Arctic better known and its residents not forgotten in policy decisions.

According to The Barents Observer, the programme on Sunday takes the senators to Isfjord Radio, an isolated station on the Greenland Sea coast. UiT researchers will give presentations there on the Arctic climate and nature. The delegation will also go to UNIS (the University Centre in Svalbard) to hear about how climate change is affecting the archipelago.

The visit follows by one day a joint statement from the seven NATO states with Arctic territory. They said closer cooperation is needed to keep the region secure and prosperous. They pointed to higher Russian military activity and rising Chinese strategic interest. The statement also called for a stronger NATO military presence, better surveillance and more joint exercises.