WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), recently returned from a visit to South Korea and Japan, where he met with senior government and private sector officials about deepening the nations’ trilateral cooperation on military matters, countering the aggressive dictatorships in Moscow and Beijing, and advancing energy security and the central role liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Alaska should play. The senator’s visit comes just eight months after another trip he made to the two countries last October, which included an Alaska LNG Summit he convened with U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel in Tokyo and a meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul.

“The bilateral alliances between the United States and Japan and the United States and Korea are very strong. This fact was reinforced by polling shared with me during my visit that demonstrated the public’s strong support of their nations’ respective alliances with the U.S., especially among young people,” said Senator Sullivan. “In addition to cooperation on military and trade, I emphasized the enormous opportunity we have in terms of deepening our energy relationship and energy security. The United States is an energy superpower. In the wake of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, our Asian allies now face a strategic and moral imperative to get off of Russian oil and gas. My message to them was clear: Don’t fund the Russian war machine for another 20 years by continuing to buy LNG and oil from Russia. Get your energy from your allies—particularly Alaska. Alaska has a stellar, 50-year, uninterrupted record of exporting LNG to Japan. It is a seven-day cargo shipment with no strategic choke points. Working with Ambassador Goldberg and Ambassador Emanuel, I will continue to press the case with our Korean and Japanese allies for the Alaska LNG Project as a critical piece of our deepening trilateral alliance.”

Following meetings in Tokyo, Ambassador Emanuel tweeted: “Make no mistake: energy security is national security. Great to welcome back [Senator Sullivan] to Tokyo to discuss with [Japanese Foreign Affairs] Minister Hayashi and other Japanese partners how the [United States] and [Japan] can energize our energy ties.”

In Korea, Sullivan met with Foreign Minister Park Jin and National Security Advisor Cho Tae-yong. In Japan, Sullivan met with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, National Security Advisor Takeo Akiba, and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara.

Below is a timeline of Senator Sullivan’s recent work on deepening the ties between the U.S. and America’s Indo-Pacific allies, and other related developments:

• On May 18, 2023, Senator Sullivan introduced the Indo-Pacific Strategic Energy Initiative Act, legislation to promote the financing and development of new energy infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region—with a focus on natural gas—in order to end U.S. allies’ dependance on Russian natural gas in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• In May 2023, Senator Sullivan spoke at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference about the Alaska LNG Project and opportunities to deliver clean-burning, low-cost gas to Alaskans and to America’s Indo-Pacific allies.

• In May 2023, Senator Sullivan, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) welcomed a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of the Alaska LNG Project.

• On March 6, 2023, Senator Sullivan led a letter with his Senate colleagues to Ambassador Emanuel urging the Biden administration to publicly support the export of abundant U.S. natural gas to America’s allies in Europe and Asia, particularly Japan, which has prioritized energy security in its term leading the G7.

• On December 16, 2022, Senator Sullivan welcomed a new national security strategy and related documents released by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that focuses on deepening Japan and the U.S.’s national security cooperation.

• In October 2022, Senator Sullivan and Ambassador Emanuel convened an Alaska LNG Summit of U.S. and Japanese energy and policy leaders in Tokyo. 

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