{"id":687517,"date":"2026-05-23T01:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687517\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T01:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:04:11","slug":"all-women-u-s-senate-delegation-is-heading-to-the-arctic-to-reassure-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687517\/","title":{"rendered":"All-women U.S. Senate delegation is heading to the Arctic to reassure allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Seeking to reassure U.S. allies, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators is departing for a tour of Arctic nations. And this time they’re leaving the men behind.<\/p>\n

From the eight senators to their staff and military liaison officers, the group will be entirely women as they pay diplomatic visits to government officials in four Arctic nations, witness the challenges for militaries in the region and visit a Norwegian archipelago so remote they will need escorts to avoid run-ins with polar bears.<\/p>\n

“I want them to experience, first of all, the awesomeness of the Arctic,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is leading the trip alongside Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n

The trip was born out of both senator’s work to stabilize relations with U.S. allies in North America and northern Europe at a time when President Donald Trump has taken an aggressive, go-it-alone stance in the region. Just this week, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. would pause participation<\/a> on a joint board with Canada for continental defence that dates back to World War II.<\/p>\n

Murkowski and Shaheen said that is the wrong approach in an Arctic region that has increasing strategic value and unique challenges.<\/p>\n

“We will reassure our allies that we recognize and appreciate the importance of our allies and partners in the Arctic as in so many other areas,” Shaheen told The Associated Press, adding that she expected the group to discuss “what more we can do as members of Congress to support those relationships.”<\/p>\n

A file photo of an Arctic icebreaker. Murkowski and Shaheen said they want the group to come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for Arctic communities that are experiencing the effects of climate change. (Jonathan Hayward\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

The group is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, with Sens. Cindy Hyde Smith, Katie Britt and Cynthia Lummis making up the Republican side, and Sens. Maggie Hassan, Kirsten Gillibrand and Catherine Cortez Masto from the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Departing Friday, they will visit Arctic or sub-Arctic regions in Canada; Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark; Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago that is one of the northernmost inhabited areas on earth; and Iceland.<\/p>\n

Understanding the Arctic<\/p>\n

Murkowski and Shaheen said they want the group to come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for Arctic communities that are experiencing the effects of climate change, as well as the unique challenges of conducting military operations in the region.<\/p>\n

“It’s to understand what it means to go into a remote, isolated community that has no access by road,” Murkowski said, adding that the group would see how military sites need airplane hangars because aircraft cannot be kept outside overnight in the Arctic cold.<\/p>\n

NATO has recently tried to foster cooperation in the High North through a series of joint military exercises, especially as nations like China and Russia increase their activities there.<\/p>\n

As climate change thins the Arctic ice, it could potentially create a northwest passage for international trade as well as reignite competition with Russia, China and other countries over access to the region’s mineral resources. The region is also host to a number of undersea cable projects that hold strategic value.<\/p>\n

The group will also visit Indigenous communities that have lived in the region for generations and understand the environment.<\/p>\n

Murkowski said she hopes the senators come away from the trip “excited and intrigued and hopefully inspired.”<\/p>\n

As Trump threatened to take Greenland earlier this year, Shaheen and Murkowski also teamed up to push for legislation that would prevent the U.S. from attacking any fellow NATO member.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Pentagon withdraws from Canada-U.S. defence board:\"\"<\/p>\n

Pentagon withdraws from Canada-U.S. defence board<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has announced it has paused its participation in a joint Canada-U.S. defence board that’s been around since the 1940s, accusing Canada of not making enough progress on its commitments. Canada says it’s always ready for constructive discussion on how to strengthen mutual security.<\/p>\n

They are among the lawmakers pushing to include language in this year’s defence legislation that would prevent the Trump administration from withdrawing military commitments to NATO allies.<\/p>\n

Shaheen said, “I also want to know if there are policy directives that we should be thinking about. And it will be great to have a strong bipartisan group there to discuss what we might want to do when we get back.”<\/p>\n

How an all-women trip will be different<\/p>\n

For some of the nations the group will be visiting, a high representation of women is nothing new. Iceland’s parliamentary body is comprised of roughly 46 per cent women, one of the top ranking countries globally for female political representation.<\/p>\n

Shaheen said that research suggests that “when women are the negotiating table, that agreements that are made have a much better chance of lasting for a longer period of time.”<\/p>\n

She added that data shows that representation of women in government leads to more stable societies, as well as investments back into their communities.<\/p>\n

“There are very real reasons why we need to make sure that women are at the table,” she added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-687517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}