State Affairs Chairman Bob Lynn on March 19 sent a draft of a resolution to committee members. A day earlier, in what may have been the first appearance of a sitting U.S. senator before an Alaska legislative committee, Murkowski discussed developments in the Arctic at a joint hearing of the House and Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

She noted that unless the U.S. ratified the treaty, it would not be able to participate in international deliberations on the disposition of oil, gas and mineral resources and other issues.

Negotiations on the treaty, formally the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea, took effect in 1994, when it was ratified by a 60th nation. To date it has been adopted by 155 countries and the European Community.