There is an imperative need to revive cooperation in the Arctic to tackle global and regional challenges such as climate change, nuclear waste, among other issues.
The Arctic, so exquisitely remote, seems at times to drift beyond the reach of global politics. In this frigid expanse, the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum standing as a rare bridge, kept its most formidable of rivals—Russia and the US—together, compelling the two to cooperate even as they continued to lock horns elsewhere. It seemed almost too good to be true. The enduring East-West peace once held in the Arctic has come under unaccustomed strain due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, disrupting governance, research and economic activity while challenging decades of practical and operational cooperation across the region’s vast landscapes and seascapes spanning the northern reaches of North America, Europe and Asia.
India needs to adopt a whole-of-nation approach, involving industry, academia, and think tanks, to build a comprehensive institutional base on Arctic issues.
Given the ongoing geopolitical contestations and the current state of Norway’s relations with Russia, Norway may not be able to fully realise the ambitious agenda for its upcoming presidency of the Arctic Council.
The Ukraine crisis, shifting geopolitical alliances in the Indo-Pacific and Western-imposed economic sanctions on Russia have strengthened China–Russia cooperation in the Arctic.
