The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, is preparing an “Arctic foreign policy” aimed at preparing for a more tense period in the region’s international relations.
Published yesterday at 8:34 p.m.
Dylan Robertson
The Canadian Press
She mentioned the policy to Bloomberg News, arguing that it would involve working closely with her NATO peers, including Finland and Sweden, which recently joined the military alliance.
Her office says it is a foreign policy document and not a strategy, unlike the broad plan released by Ms. Joly for the Indo-Pacific region.
The news follows recent visits made by Mélanie Joly to the Swedish capital of Stockholm and Iqaluit to meet with the territorial premiers.
The Liberals recently appointed former minister Carolyn Bennett as ambassador to Denmark, a role they said was focused on closer relations with Greenland.
The government’s defense policy update published in April focused heavily on the north, although it fell short of NATO’s spending target on military matters.
Mme Joly says the policy document is necessary because geopolitics in the region have changed rapidly since a decades-long “low tension” situation, meaning new partnerships in military exercises, intelligence sharing and The acquisition of defense equipment is necessary.
The Liberals launched an Arctic and Northern Policy Framework in 2019, focused on collaboration across jurisdictions on issues such as education and health care, as well as military matters. Ms. Joly indicated that this document will include a new chapter on international relations.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States, Finland and other Arctic states have released new strategies aimed, among other things, at limiting any co-optation of sovereign territories, even if Moscow insists it has no such ambitions.
Greenland released its own Arctic strategy in February, which included a promise to establish a diplomatic mission in Ottawa. “Greenland encourages the establishment of a Canadian consulate in Greenland,” the policy document reads.
In an analysis published last week, Canadian political scientist Marc Lanteigne argued that Canada should follow suit and use the office to better cooperate on Canada and Europe’s goals to source strategic materials needed for a low-carbon world beyond China.
“With Canadian Arctic security requiring increased cooperation and communication with allies across the Atlantic, Greenland should be included in this dialogue given its location in the middle (in some cases literally) of the myriad security issues currently affecting the High North,” wrote Mr. Lanteigne, a professor at the Arctic University of Norway.
