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OSLO (Reuters) - In a rare display of collaboration between Moscow and the West, when Arctic nations conducted a large-scale oil spill simulation for a virtual training exercise off northern Norway in March, Russia participated.
This underscored the unique status of the polar region, despite strained relations due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Norway has been eager to maintain limited cooperation through the Arctic Council.
"We had effective communication (during the oil spill exercise) with all states, including Russia, and Russia also offered assistance, which we accepted," said Ole Kristian Bjerkemo, chair of the Arctic Council's Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response working group, which led the drill. Russia simulated sending two vessels to the exercise.
The Arctic Council consists of all eight Arctic nations - the United States, Canada, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Russia - addressing issues ranging from pollution and economic development to search-and-rescue missions.
The seven Western nations, all members of the NATO military alliance, paused cooperation with Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine, leading to a halt in a third of the Council's 130 projects involving direct Russian involvement. This raised concerns about the forum's potential collapse, which would jeopardize Arctic security and undermine efforts to combat climate change in a region warming four times faster than the rest of the world, diplomats said.
Norway, assuming the Council's rotating two-year chairmanship last May, expressed the desire to prevent such a collapse. "The main objective for the Norwegian chairmanship has been to ensure that the structure survives because we cannot afford to lose it," said Norway's deputy foreign minister Maria Varteressian.
ARCTIC 'EXCEPTIONALISM'
Founded in 1996, the Council has been a crucial arena for collaboration between the West and Russia, producing binding agreements on environmental protection and preservation.
Russia accounts for roughly a third of the entire Arctic region and nearly 70% of economic activity in high latitudes.
"We knew this chairmanship would be an extremely challenging and difficult one," said Norway's Morten Hoeglund, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, who is tasked with balancing relations between the Council's Western members and Russia. Russia's Arctic Council ambassador did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
At the start of the Ukraine conflict, many experts predicted the end of Arctic "exceptionalism," a post-Cold War concept characterizing the Arctic as a unique place immune to some geopolitical tensions, making it a zone for peaceful cooperation. Some recent events have reinforced this pessimism.
Last September, Russia withdrew from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, another Arctic regional forum. In February, Russia suspended its annual voluntary payments to the Arctic Council, citing the need for "real work" involving the participation of all member countries.
However, in February, the Arctic Council's secretariat announced the resumption of working group meetings on environmental and safety issues in a virtual format, with Russia participating. Some analysts see grounds for hope.
"What we're seeing during Norway's chairmanship shows that cooperation is still possible," said Pavel Devyatkin, a Moscow-based researcher with the U.S. think tank the Arctic Institute.
The Council's working group dedicated to monitoring the region's climate and environment will soon publish three reports — on changes to the Arctic climate, microplastic pollution, and radioactivity — that had been delayed by the Ukraine conflict.
The radioactivity report required significant input from Moscow, as it has a Russian co-lead author and includes extensive Russian data, said Rolf Roedven, executive secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme working group.
Norway and Russia, sharing an Arctic border, collaborate on practical issues such as managing fisheries in the Barents Sea, which has continued since the invasion of Ukraine.
Pragmatic cooperation at the technical or scientific level may be the path forward, but officials say political-level contacts on the Council are unthinkable while the war continues.
"We have to adapt to a new reality," Hoeglund said. "We have to accept...that this is a different reality than it was four years ago. It is certainly not going to be anything resembling what it was back then."