Russia’s “increased military activities” in the Arctic are driving up the risk of a conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned following meetings with NATO allies in the region.
“We have concerns about some of the increased military activities in the Arctic that increases the dangers or prospects of accidents, miscalculations, and undermines the shared goal of a peaceful and sustainable future for the region,” Blinken said during a trip to Iceland. “What, again, we need to avoid is a militarization of the region.”
Blinken will meet Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Reykjavik on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Arctic Council, a once-sleepy forum that developed into a geopolitical hot spot as climate change creates the prospect of new access to natural resources and navigable routes through the high north. Both China and Russia have emerged as potential threats to U.S. and Western interests in the region, in the eyes of U.S. officials, and NATO allies are troubled in particular by Russian military maneuvers.
“We have seen Russian — some of the military bases in the northeastern flank that was closed off at the end of the Cold War has been reopened,” Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said Monday following a meeting with Blinken. “They have mainly defensive capabilities but also some offensive capabilities. And we see increased activities in the Arctic region.”
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Russia wants to establish “a special regime” to regulate shipping in the Northern Sea Route, a Russian admiral said last week, and the former Cold War power’s top defense official pledged recently that Moscow would continue to fortify its military position in the region.
“It is important to say that the Northern Fleet is constantly practicing employing fighter aviation from the airfields of Arctic archipelagos,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in April. “The military infrastructure continues to be developed on Arctic islands and the coastline of the Arctic Ocean.”
That posture has alarmed NATO allies in the region. “It should be a low-tension area,” Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson said Tuesday. “And then second, it needs to be sustainable, not only when it comes to the environment, but also socially and economically. And that’s the policy of Iceland … So, it’s really good to hear at our meeting with me and Tony how focused we were on these same views when it comes to the Arctic.”
Lavrov dismissed these “grievances” in his own preface to the Arctic Council meeting, uncorking instead his own complaint about NATO military operations in the Arctic.
“It has long been common knowledge that this is our territory, our land,” he said. “We have questions for our neighbors, for instance, Norway, that tries to justify the need for a NATO presence in the Arctic with different reasons. We will openly discuss this issue at an Arctic Council meeting in Reykjavik.”
Norway allowed a U.S. nuclear submarine to make a port call last week, a decision that drew public complaint from Moscow.
“There is no reason to trust the Norwegian military leaders’ assurances the U.S. submarine was carrying no nuclear weapons,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. “It is especially regrettable that Oslo has adopted a harsh policy line to build up the militarization of the Arctic and heighten tension in this traditionally peaceful region.”
Lavrov’s sovereignty claims could spark additional controversy at the council meeting after U.S. and Icelandic officials rejected Moscow’s attempt to set the rules for the region.
“It’s not like there is no man’s land in the way that you look at the rules and laws, various rules and laws that the Arctic is a part of,” Thordarson said.
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Blinken agreed. “We’ve seen Russia advance unlawful maritime claims, particularly its regulation of foreign vessels transiting the Northern Sea Route, which are inconsistent with international law,” he said. “And that is something that we have and will respond to.”
