The Arctic Council ministerial meeting, hosted by the Canadian government in Iqaluit on April 24, 2015, proved to be a productive and substantial event. It underscored achievements of all eight Arctic countries during Canada’s chairmanship, including the creation of the Arctic Economic Council. The ministers, Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi among them, signed the Iqaluit Declaration reaffirming the commitment to maintain peace, stability and constructive cooperation in the Arctic and plans to further strengthen international cooperation. With these goals in mind, the ministers approved a number of documents, including the Framework Plan for Cooperation on Prevention of Oil Pollution from Petroleum and Maritime Activities in the Marine Areas of the Arctic, the Framework for Action on Enhanced Black Carbon and Methane Emissions Reductions, and the Arctic Marine Strategic Plan for 2015-2025. The Council also established two new task forces: the Task Force on Arctic Marine Cooperation and the Task Force on Telecommunications Infrastructure in the Arctic.

While noting the hospitality provided by the Canadian chairmanship to all participants of this important international forum, I have to admit that the hosts, driven, regrettably, by domestic agenda, attempted to promote it with a purpose of scoring political points. No wonder the participants of the event, including Arctic indigenous peoples’ organizations, underscored the irrelevance of the politization of the circumpolar cooperation. Days later the Russian Foreign Ministry would go on to say that overall, the Arctic countries’ cooperation has been developing constructively, but Canada’s abuse of its role as Chair of the Arctic Council is deplorable and unacceptable. 

As stated in 2008 Ilulissat Declaration by the Arctic Five (Russia, Canada, US, Denmark, Norway), all relevant issues should be solved in accordance with international law through bilateral and multilateral negotiations aimed at promoting and assuring stability, predictability, peace and security in the Arctic.

Russia strongly believes that the Arctic is a territory of dialogue, not a place for name-calling and reckoning political scores. As Minister Donskoi pointed out during Iqaluit session that “no matter what is happening in the outside world, Arctic cooperation must continue”. We proceed from the premise that the key role in the Arctic should be played by Arctic states themselves with their sovereign rights and national interests secured. 

Our countries as neighbors across the North Pole have common interests in developing and preserving the Arctic region, as well as bear special responsibility to ensure its safe and prosperous future. It is Russia’s principled approach that all outstanding issues, including the continental shelf delimitation, be resolved consensually through bilateral and multilateral negotiations on the basis of true diplomacy, mutual respect and recognition of national interests of the Arctic coastal states. 

For almost 20 years the Arctic Council has been a success story and all the necessary prerequisites are there for the new US Chairmanship to move forward in a constructive and pragmatic manner.