FT: “The Arctic is at the centre of a global geopolitical battle as China, India and Japan attempt to join the main body involved in setting the rules for future development of the polar region.
At a meeting in Kiruna in northern Sweden on Wednesday and Thursday, ministers from the five Nordic countries, the US, Canada and Russia will decide whether to let 14 countries and organisations gain the status of “observer” to the Arctic Council.
China is the most controversial name on the list, but its candidacy has the support of all the Nordic countries.
Canada and Russia have expressed concerns about further opening up the council, which already has six European countries as observers as well as various intergovernmental and non-government organisations. The US has said it is undecided over the decision, which needs unanimity.
The Arctic is viewed as an increasingly strategic area due to the presence of many resources such as oil, as well as the possibility of quicker shipping routes between Europe and Asia as the ice in the polar region continues to melt.
China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, the EU, Italy and Greenpeace are among the bodies applying at the twice yearly summit for observer status, which would allow them to attend all meetings but not participate in the ministerial conferences.
The council, which was launched in 1996 and serves as a body for international rulemaking on the Arctic.
In a sign of the importance the US is now according the Arctic, secretary of state John Kerry arrived on Tuesday in Sweden for talks first in Stockholm with the government and then in Kiruna.
China has heavily wooed Nordic countries such as Iceland, with which it signed the first free-trade agreement with a European country last month.
Oil exploration in the Arctic has proved to be incredibly difficult, but more than a fifth of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves is thought to be in the region, and there is also great scope for mining of various minerals in places such as Greenland, northern Sweden and Finland.
A northern sea route through the Arctic to the north of Russia could cut several weeks off shipping times and thousands of kilometres off distances between Europe and Asia, especially in the summer, which experts think could soon be ice-free in parts of the region.”
via Arctic Council to rule on observer status for China – FT.com.
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