The Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide (Labor), opened the security conference with a speech in which he emphasized that the Arctic Council still exists with Russia among its members.
“I am proud that we managed to preserve the Arctic Council as an organization, despite major geopolitical upheaval and the fact that it has not been possible to maintain traditional political cooperation with Russia. And although it has been difficult to introduce many new initiatives since we do not have meetings in the Council on a political level, we have been able to continue and further develop the work in existing areas of cooperation,” said Barth Eide and continued:
“We are attempting to conserve an organization for pan-Arctic cooperation, which includes Russia’s enormous Arctic coast. At the same time, we are very open about the challenges linked to geopolitical tensions in which Russia is on the wrong side of history. This balancing act is not easy, but Norway managed to keep the Arctic Council alive, and we handed over the chairship of the council to the Kingdom of Denmark, represented by Greenland, in May. The council continues its work basically along the lines we have developed in the past years.”