The Liberals may say they want to increase Canada\u0027s global influence, but closing the Arctic centre in Norway indicates otherwise
The U.S. secretary of state didn’t even attend the council’s biannual meetings of foreign ministers until 2011, but now Washington has eagerly taken the leadership mantle. While Canada is closing its Arctic centre, the U.S. plans to open a consulate inside the Arctic Circle, in Tromsø, Norway. The Biden administration released an ambitious Arctic strategy in October and will imminently release a plan to measure its progress.
They also have strong leadership from Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, perhaps the most knowledgeable politician from any country on Arctic affairs, especially now that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s influence has diminished. And Alaskan Mike Sfraga, chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, has been nominated for Washington’s new position of Ambassador-at-Large for the Arctic.
Since Mary Simon, now governor general, served as Canada’s first circumpolar affairs ambassador from 1994 to 2003 , Ottawa has had no one of equivalent stature and experience working on Arctic foreign policy. Instead we have lumped the Arctic with Europe and Eurasian affairs under a single director general in Global Affairs Canada, ensuring the region will never get the attention or institutional memory it deserves and needs.
Canada should certainly be a substantial voice on such files as Ukraine, NATO and the Indo-Pacific, but the truth is we will always be a middle power in those areas. The Arctic, however, is one policy area where we are meant to lead. Unfortunately everything we are doing now tells the world that we not only don’t know how to provide leadership in the Arctic anymore, we don’t want to.Article content
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