AEC Moves Meeting From Russia: "Politicized and Irrational", says Russian MFA

The Arctic Economic Council (AEC) held an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting on Monday February 28 and decided to move its hybrid annual general meeting from St Petersburg to an online meeting. The reason beeing the war in Ukraine.

Executive Director Mads Qvist Frederiksen says in a statement that “The Arctic Economic Council condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The Arctic Economic Council supports peace and democracy and we deplore the loss of life and the human suffering.”

Four out of five members of the Executive Committee voted in favor of the condemnation of the invasion.

"Politicized and obviously irrational”

The statement is answered by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who calls the AEC statement "politicized and obviously irrational”.

Russias Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation)

The Russian MFA´s response stands in stark contrast to the Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, Nikolay Korchunov's response to the statement from the Arctic Council last Thursday, in which seven of the Arctic states announced to pause the cooperation due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Korchunov says that the Russian chairmanship has taken note of the recommendation made by the seven other Arctic States, and therefore has made a decision to temporarily pause the work of the Arctic Council and its subsidiary bodies until further notice.

"The Russian Chairmanship remains open to the resumption of dialogue and cooperation within the Arctic Council in due time", says Nikolay Korchunov.

Hostage

The Russian MFA, on the other hand, goes on to say that the AEC statement makes it difficult to work together within the Council, both for the "development of regional cooperation in the interests of all inhabitants of the Arctic, including indigenous peoples, to ensure sustainable socio-economic development of the region, adaptation to  climate change, implementation of the study programs and environmental protection, and also joint efforts within  biodiversity conservation”.

Maria Zakharova says that this area of international cooperation never has been hostage to the geopolitical situation.

“It turns out that the desire of a number of countries to "punish" Russia will result in serious costs for the joint search for optimal solutions to urgent Arctic problems”.

Will continue working

Zakharova also spoke for the Russian Chairmanship of the Arctic Council a week before the councils statement, saying that they have hopes that the AC partners will “demonstrate common sense and return to constructive interaction within the Council”.

“For our part, we will continue consistent work on the implementation of the comprehensive program of the Russian Chairmanship of the Arctic Council for the period 2021-2023 in order to ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic with a balanced combination of social, economic and environmental dimensions, which objectively meets the interests of the entire region", concludes the statement from the Russian MFA.

The Arctic Economic Council was created with inspiration from the Arctic Council as a place of dialogue between nations and people in the North.