Pete Ricketts Questions Experts On Growing Cooperation Between China And Russia In Arctic Region

thank you Senator rickets thank you Mr chairman uh Dr kenong the University of Nebraska Medical Center has uh one of three biocontainment facilities in the country and the only federally funded quarantine space if this is not a commitment I'm asking you to make I'm just saying that if you're confirmed I'd recommend visiting uh they were instrumental in taking some of Ebola patients from Africa Americans who have been infected with ebola and treating them here in the United States as well as uh some of the First Co paatti as well so U certainly worth your time if you're confirmed to to make a visit not asking you to make a commitment but keep in mind uh misseri So within OES uh the U office of Science and Technology cooperation oversees our stas as I was talking about before the US has 60 of these uh with countries like Canada and Japan however I'm sure you agree that the STA with People's Republic of China is different and in my opinion frankly China's been playing for us for a fool for three decades now um it's an adversary they practice civil military Fusion to leverage their civilian and Commercial resource for military and defense purposes and the evidence suggests they're going to continue to look for opportunities to exploit Partnerships organized under the sea to advance their military objectives in February the Biden Administration and Beijing agreed to extend their SDA for another six months to continue negotiations um so I want to ask a few simple questions I hope we can agree on the U do you believe believe that Congress should be able to provide the necessary oversight on an sta with the PRC Senator um thank you very much for your questions and and expressing the concerns you have with uh uh scdaa with PRC I appreciate that um I am aware that there is a notification um in the Appropriations Bill and yes I do think that Congress should um be consulted as we look through uh a new renewal of the STA with PRC great uh if the administration were finalize negotiations on a new sta with the PRC do you believe Congress should receive detailed justification on what was agreed to and and why our national security and why it is in our national security interest before the agreement goes into effect uh Senator um if confirmed I would be happy to make sure that we are um fully briefing uh your staff and other interested staff in the STA great thank you uh do you believe that a specific text of any negotiate agreement should have clear guard rails on what is permissible uh what are permissible research areas for collaboration what are not and would you agree that we want to make clear the areas of dual use concerns should be made off limits uh Senator um if confirmed uh I would I would want to talk a little bit to the state department their lawyers about um what can go into an SDA I don't know if there's restrictions like that I'm used to it kind of putting guard rails on um how the China and uh the US would work together versus specific specifically saying what could or could not um do so if confirmed I'd be happy to get back to you specifically on nsda including um types of research that could or could not take place all right great thank you I'm going to switch gears on you just a little bit here uh the os's office of ocean and polar Affairs is responsible for formulating and implementing US policy on international issues concerning the ocean the Arctic and the Antarctic as you know uh prior to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine the US collaborated with Russia uh on Arctic climate research however soon after in uh The Invasion that collaboration rightfully stopped since that time Putin's War has continued to rage on with tens of thousands of innocent ukrainians have been killed thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted millions of ukrainians have become refugees and countless ukrainians have endured bral brutal human rights abuses do you believe that it should remain our policy that the United States will not collaborate with Russia on any research in the Arctic until Putin ends his war in Ukraine Senator I agree with that yes great thank you uh Russia obviously isn't the only adversary we have to worry about in the Arctic the PRC has a self-proclaimed near Arctic State this is crazy has expanded its presence there as well for decades Russia has actively ex excluded the PRC and other non-arctic countries from playing a role in its backyard however since Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and Putin's No Limits partnership with she Russia has been forced to embrace an increased PRC role in the Arctic last year we saw the PRC begin to send Personnel to research stations located in Norway's uh Z zalvard and in Iceland after leny Hiatus uh we saw a Russian Coast Guard sign an Arctic cooperation agreement with the China Coast Guard and we saw the prc's polar Research Institute make startling announcement that it plans to deploy listenting devices on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean in your view how should the United States respond to the prc's growing research and other activities in the Arctic and how should US policy on this question take into account increased cooperation between Russia and the People's Republic of China Senator thanks for um that that question I I appreciate it so the US is first of all about the near Arctic Nation um I'm angree with you with you I don't know what a near Arctic nation is um the government they made that term up didn't they yeah I I believe that is the case um You Know Arctic governance it should um be with the Arctic Nations um the US isn't a very important Arctic Nation there is the Arctic Council um which has been kind of the preeminent area for looking at how we um do Management in the Arctic um with Russia's illegal invasion of the Ukraine um Us and other countries pause participation um there's efforts now um to continue to do work but not engage in anything that the Republic the sorry the uh Russians are um taking uh part in um I think one of the very significant things that um that the US recently did was extend its um continental shelf that gave us much more territory actually in the Arctic which means we have much more control over who can do scientific research um what can actually take place in that I think through the um Arctic Council and other work with uh uh Arctic states that don't include Russia we have to have a unified um front about how we're going to approach the research that is taking place and the threats that it poses um to the other Arctic Nations great thank you very much Mr thank you very much Mr chairman thank you uh Dr gansong

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Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024