Sputnik
Moscow has devoted considerable political, economic and military capital to the Arctic region to create a major new trade route and explore untapped mineral and energy wealth. The US and its allies have sought to sabotage these efforts, suggesting Russia’s Arctic waters should be free for anyone to use.
Senior Western leaders and policymakers are reportedly concerned that Russia and China could join forces to create a new Arctic bloc amid the West’s efforts to freeze Moscow out of the Arctic Council.
“The worry is if Russia and China make their own kind of Arctic Council,” a senior Arctic country policymaker has toldBritish business media, referencing concerns that the eight-member intergovernmental forum could disintegrate following the suspension of cooperation by its Western members with Russia last year, and the formal end of its Russia’s rotating presidency in the body in May, when it was handed over to Norway.
“Will things just go back to the normal way of doing things in the Arctic Council? I don’t think so when it comes to Russia. Is China playing a role in the Arctic region? Yes they are. Should we be aware of this? Yes,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, adding that the West has to stop being “naïve” in relation to Russia and the Arctic region.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto warned that the bad blood between Russia and the Council’s seven Western members could result to “an Arctic with no rules, or an Arctic area with no common goal for climate change. It would be free for everyone to use for shipping routes, for raw materials.”
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