Michael de Laine

Melting ice raises security challenges as Russia sees Arctic as main strategic base for raw materials

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 31st January 2009

Melting ice raises security challenges for NATO and the western countries bordering on the Arctic as Russia announces its intention that the Arctic should be its main strategic base for raw materials.

NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, a number of allied ministers and ambassadors, including Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Geir Haarde, the retiring prime minister of Iceland, the chairman of the military committee, the two strategic commanders, and many other decision-makers and experts from allied countries met in Reykjavik on Thursday and Friday to discuss security challenges that may arise as the Arctic ice melts.

“The economic interests in the Arctic are reflected in competing claims by relevant stakeholders and resumed military presence in the area,” NATO said. “As it is a region of enduring strategic importance for NATO and allied security, developments in the High North require careful and ongoing examination.”

Addressing the seminar, the NATO secretary-general said: “We are here today not in response to a specific threat, but in response to a change, and with a view to developing a better understanding of that change.”

He added: “The changes caused by the progressive melting of the ice cap are of concern to many countries beyond those of the Arctic Council and NATO. Indeed, the whole of the international community stands to be affected by many of the changes that are already taking place. In this situation, NATO needs to identify where the alliance, with its unique competencies, can add value.”

De Hoop Scheffer pointed to a number of contributions that NATO could make in this respect, including relief operations, search and rescue missions, as well as serving as a forum of discussion and utilizing the opportunities inherent to the NATO-Russia Council.

“I believe that this relatively modest seminar in Reykjavik can make a major contribution towards promoting greater understanding of security prospects in the High North,” Haarde said. “This will enhance the security and stability in the region.”

Talking to reporters later, de Hoop Scheffer said that military confrontation in the Arctic following ice melting is highly unlikely and that the alliance seek cooperation in the region.

“The word ‘threat’ is unjustified and inappropriate in this regard,” de Hoop Scheffer said. “I would be the last one to expect or to make any reference to military conflict, definitely not.”

Collaboration in the Arctic will be on the agenda as NATO seeks to rebuild ties with the Kremlin that were shattered by Russia’s five-day war in August with would-be alliance member Georgia, NATO’s secretary-general said. Referring to the improvement of NATO-Russia relations, de Hoop Scheffer added, “I hope we’ll see that development soon.”

But details leaked from Russia’s National Security strategy document – which highlights the Arctic as in the country’s new national security plan – reveals an uncompromising tone about the Arctic.

“It cannot be ruled out that the battle for raw materials will be waged with military means,” the explosive document reads, according to a comprehensive analytical article in the German magazine Der Spiegel on Thursday.

The German news magazine says Russia asserts claims on large sections of the Arctic Ocean in the plan, which is due to be published early in February.

The tone of the document is openly aggressive, prompting fears of increasing international tension over who has the right to exploit the mineral-rich territory, Der Spiegel added.

It said the government-controlled newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta is preparing Russians for the notion that “the fight for the Arctic will be the initial spark for a new division of the world.”

Artur Chilingarov, a member of the Russia parliament and Moscow’s chief ideologue when it comes to conquering the Arctic, put it this way: “We are not prepared to give our Arctic to anyone.”

Chilingarov - who in August 2007 used a remote-controlled submarine arm to plant a Russian flag made of titanium on the ocean floor at the North Pole at a depth of 4,261 meters - wants to “present evidence to the United Nations within one year” that the North Pole belongs to the Russians.

Der Spiegel said his threat to those in the west who disagree is simple: “If these rights are not recognized, Russia will withdraw from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

Last September, two dozen government representatives, including defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov, visited Russia’s northernmost border post on the Arctic Ocean island of Alexandra Land.

The German magazine said they quickly agreed that “the Arctic must become Russia’s main strategic base for raw materials.”

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Security Council of Russia, was quick to point out: “If we do not become active now, we will simply be forced out.”

This group decided to prepare a comprehensive strategy for the development of the Arctic in the period to 2020 – this is the document to be released next week, Der Spiegel added.

Der Spiegel’s article can be read here