DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: With a warming climate melting more Arctic ice cover and global industries eager to exploit the region for shipping, fishing, drilling and mining, the United States and Russia sounded a rare, cooperative note going into an Arctic meeting this week.
The conciliatory tone was encouraging to governments, local residents, investors and environmental groups worried about a lack of regulations and potential environmental damage as industries look northward to the world’s largest remaining oil, gas and mineral deposits.
“Our vision is very much one of cooperation,” U.S. State Department Arctic Envoy Jim de Hart told Reuters in an interview ahead of the biennial meeting of the eight Arctic Council nations. “It’s about action on climate change. It’s about good science and keeping the region peaceful.”
In Moscow, senior Arctic Council official Nikolai Korchunov also struck a conciliatory tone, telling a briefing last week that Moscow and Washington have “very constructive” dialogue at the Arctic Council. U.S. President Joe Biden’s concern about fighting climate change, a U-Turn in Washington’s position, was especially welcome at a time when arctic temperatures are rising faster than the global average and summertime sea ice is increasingly sparse and thin.
Some worried, however, that deep U.S.-Russian disagreements over other, unrelated issues could hinder talks between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Since Biden was inaugurated in January, Washington and Moscow have clashed over charges of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election; challenges of Ukraine’s sovereignty; Moscow’s jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny; and U.S. support of democracy activists in Russia and Belarus.
