The shift of the Arctic from the half-forgotten periphery of world affairs to a focus of global interest is irreversible
In May this year, in the midst of nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula and a worsening civil war in Syria, John Kerry, the newly minted Secretary of State, and Sergey Lavrov, the veteran Russian Foreign Minister, found themselves at a dinner with their fellow Arctic Council foreign ministers in the northern Swedish mining town of Kiruna.
The Middle East and Far East were off the agenda for the night. Instead, discussion among eight ministers from the Arctic countries – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States – focused on a more esoteric question: whether to accept or reject applications from China, India, Singapore, South Korea and others – none of which has any sovereign territory in the Arctic – to become second-tier members of the Arctic club, as observers to the Arctic Council.
See full Press Release: http://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/archive/view/193655
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