India needs to adopt a whole-of-nation approach, involving industry, academia, and think tanks, to build a comprehensive institutional base on Arctic issues.
Given the ongoing geopolitical contestations and the current state of Norway’s relations with Russia, Norway may not be able to fully realise the ambitious agenda for its upcoming presidency of the Arctic Council.
Anurag Bisen replies: Global warming impacting geo-politics is very much evident in the radically transformed Arctic region, which is warming four times faster than other parts of Earth. Arctic’s ice meltdown and its geographical location is likely to transform global maritime commerce and also opens up possibilities of extraction of huge potential oil and gas and other mineral resources, and expanded fishing and tourism in the Arctic.
The Ukraine crisis, shifting geopolitical alliances in the Indo-Pacific and Western-imposed economic sanctions on Russia have strengthened China–Russia cooperation in the Arctic.
China’s 13th Arctic Expedition
Chinese scientists successfully carried out tasks at the North Pole onboard their first domestically built polar ice-breaker Xuelong 2.