Arctic Council to meet in Fairbanks

Adm. Robert Papp, U.S. special representative for the Arctic, has announced that the next ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council will be held in the Alaska city of Fairbanks in May 2017, according to a report in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. The meeting will bring to the city senior government officials from the eight Arctic nations and the permanent member nations of the council. The meeting will mark the end of the two-year tenure of the United States as chair of the council, and will involve the handing over of the chairmanship to the next country to take on that role.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has praised the choice of Fairbanks as the venue for the meeting, saying that she had been calling for the choice of an Alaska community as a location for the event.

“I have long advocated that Alaska not only host the Arctic ministerial meeting, but that it be held as close to the U.S. Arctic region as possible,” Murkowski said in a Jan. 25 news release. “The University of Alaska Fairbanks is home to some of the most current research and leading experts on a variety of Arctic issues, and I cannot imagine a better place to host this event than the Golden Heart City, in the middle of the state that makes America an Arctic nation. This will be an amazing opportunity for the world’s leaders to see firsthand both the challenges and opportunities facing the Arctic.”

- ALAN BAILEY