6. Department of State · Minor
Keep Arctic shipping lanes open and free of onerous fees
Printed page 190 6. Department of State
“The U.S. should work to ensure that shipping lanes in the Arctic remain available to all global commercial traffic and free of onerous fees and burdensome administrative, regulatory, and military requirements.”
What has happened
- Attempted
State's Arctic priorities report to Congress lists engagement with the International Maritime Organization, the Arctic Coast Guard Forum and the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement and names "increased Arctic shipping" among the Arctic Council issues the United States is pressing, but records no U.S. action on transit fees or on administrative, regulatory or military requirements in Arctic sea lanes. A Federal Register full-text search for the quoted phrase "Northern Sea Route" since 2025-01-20 returns 0 documents, and "Arctic Council" returns 0.
- Attempted
The only in-window instrument that engages the object is the Arctic Security Cutters memorandum, whose findings recite that adversary activity in the Arctic "jeopardize[s] critical shipping lanes" and authorizes up to four cutters to close the capability gap. That is a means, not the access regime the Quote asks the United States to secure.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Every source this Status rests on is allowlisted and was read in full; none of it was off the allowlist or unreadable.
- Action
- other
- Object
- Arctic shipping lanes
- ID
- 511