"Trust is completely undermined" – NATO is turning the Arctic Council into a suitcase without a handle for Russia.
Western participants, on the one hand, are trying to hold on to the Arctic Council, while on the other, they are dragging NATO into the Arctic.
Vladislav Maslennikov , the senior official representing the Russian Federation in the Arctic Council, announced this at the Eastern Economic Forum , reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
" Western members of the Council are currently demonstrating an interest in maintaining this format once conditions for resuming cooperation emerge. This is tenuously consistent with statements by the leadership of these same countries that business with Russia as before cannot continue , even after the end of the Ukrainian conflict."
Therefore, to restore work here, real steps are needed from all seven Western Arctic countries , which are also members of NATO.
So far, their efforts are going in the opposite direction. NATO continues to intensify the militarization of the Arctic . New sanctions packages are being adopted, which, among other things, complicate the implementation of projects with international participation in the Arctic.
As a result, military and political tensions are now rising in high latitudes, which were previously characterized by exclusively peaceful cooperation, and the risks of unintentional escalation are increasing ," Maslennikov said.
He stressed that “ trust has been undermined in the complete absence of political dialogue ,” and without targeted steps to at least partially restore it, cooperation is unlikely to be possible.
"The position of the Western Arctic Seven, which is trying with one hand to cling to the Arctic Council and preserve the organization at least for the future, while with the other it is dragging NATO into the Arctic, is extremely counterproductive. It not only delays the prospects for renewed cooperation in the Arctic Council, but actually risks turning it into a suitcase without a handle ," the diplomat added.