Russia needs to create its own Arctic council, said Alexander Vorotnikov, coordinator of the expert council of the Arctic Development Project Office.
According to Vorotnikov, until recently, the current Arctic Council was a platform for discussion, where Russia's position was heard, but the situation has changed – the Arctic Council has stopped working in the interests of Russia.
On May 11 Russia handed over the chairmanship of the Arctic Council to Norway. A year ago, in May 2022, Western countries belonging to the intergovernmental organization suspended their work in the AU due to the situation in Ukraine, refusing to participate in events in the second year of Russia's chairmanship in the organization.
We are talking about the Arctic countries - Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Norway, the USA, Finland and Sweden, as well as several observer countries at the Council, including Germany and France, goarctic.ru notes.
"Conversations have already begun about the future exclusion of Russia. Other countries are confident that they will do without it. Even if one of the Western countries wanted to interact with Russia, they would not have been given it - they are all in NATO," Vorotnikov said.
He believes that Russia needs new partners, first of all India and China, who are interested both in the Northern Sea Route as a transport highway and in the resources that Russia is going to extract in the Arctic region.
This idea was previously expressed by the Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Arctic Council Nikolai Korchunov.
According to him, if Russia continues to be ignored, then the sense of being in the Arctic Council will disappear, and the largest Arctic country could create an alternative Arctic council, which would include friendly states such as China and India.
However, Korchunov noted, the existing format still suits Russia. "The organization is needed in order to consult, and this is still happening," the diplomat said.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
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