US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the opening in Oslo, where he will be a guest for a meeting with his NATO colleagues. But he also took the opportunity to talk to Norway about the Arctic. Climate change is causing the ice there to melt rapidly, making more raw materials available and making new sea routes navigable. More and more countries are therefore actively involved in the region.
“Our observation post in Tromsø is an opportunity to have a diplomatic presence above the Arctic Circle,” Blinken said of the point. Usually only one person works in an observation post and, according to Blinken, that person will mainly be concerned with climate change and cooperation with indigenous peoples. Tromsø is the largest city in Norwegian Lapland with almost 80,000 inhabitants.
The US and Norway are part of the Arctic Council, as are Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. But cooperation in that body has largely come to a standstill since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. China, which is not a member of the Council, is also showing interest in the North Pole. Blinken emphasizes that he wants the Arctic to remain a region of peaceful cooperation.