... preferences. Because the United States’ strategic priority has shifted towards China, U.S. participants wondered whether Washington might prefer a “third way” for Russia over a complete bifurcation of the global order in which Russia sides with China.
Russia’s Chairmanship of theArctic Council
The Arctic remains a positive outlier in a receding list of areas where U.S.-Russia engagement is cooperative. Russia’s forthcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2021-2023) provides an occasion to build on decades of cooperative ...
... nations, militarizing the Arctic brings a great deal of concern for a number of reasons. These include the asymmetric power balance between Russia and other Arctic nations in the region, an increase in bilateral partnership cooperation between Russia and China, a lack of mandate at the Arctic Council to discuss military security issues among the Arctic nations, etc. As a result, I think the NATO build-up and its recent military exercises are counteractions to respond to Russia's militarization of the Arctic region in the event of asymmetric ...
... actors in the Arctic. Russia, like Canada, is keen to strengthen the positions of the Arctic states and is wary of expanding the circle of actors in the region.
For example, Moscow and Ottawa initially opposed the decision to grant observer status in the Arctic Council to China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Italy, the European Union and a number of organizations, Moscow and Ottawa in 2013, fearing that the work of the Arctic Council would suffer as a result.
This led to the applications of the European Union and ...
... President of Finland’s “breakthrough idea” of an “Arctic summit” did not materialize. Finland will continue to chair the Arctic Council until the spring of 2019, and such a summit would sound a powerful chord at the end of the country’s northern ... ... resources, and that the military confrontation between NATO and Russia would expand, did not come true either. The forecasts of China’s expansion in the Arctic under the slogan of developing the “Polar Silk Road” initiative, part of the larger “One ...
... organizations, scientists, corporations and governments of various countries who have taken an active interest in the Arctic
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. China, South Korea, Singapore and India formed a special non-regional group for which the assembly offered an unprecedented opportunity ... ... democratic and advanced “Arctic Circle” concept in favor of a more closed and “inimical” environment of the Arctic Council, where permanent observers have little chance of participating directly in the process of discussing vital issues....
... China, which has demonstrated its willingness to participate in the exploration of the Arctic region more actively than the rest over the recent years, occupies a special position among them.
Norway has the last word
Norway’s stance on admitting China to the Arctic Council remained a matter of intrigue until virtually the last moment. This was due to the “cooling” of bilateral relations in the recent past, provoked by the Nobel Peace Prize Award
[1]
to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in early October ...
