Canada bolsters Arctic security to counter Russia-China threat

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Canada is to open new consulates in Alaska and Greenland, appoint an ambassador for the Arctic and enlist Indigenous communities to carry out surveillance in the area as it bolsters security in its Arctic region.

The measures are part of a new Arctic security policy that was announced in Ottawa on Friday by foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly and defence minister Bill Blair.

“The Arctic is no longer a low-tension region,” Joly said. “Canada is at an inflection point in the Arctic.”

Canada’s new Arctic ambassador will be an Indigenous person and remote communities in the region will serve as “eyes and ears” in the north, she said.

As temperatures rise because of global warming Arctic areas that were previously frozen may become navigable, and natural resources more easily exploited, setting off completing claims.

Blair said: “This growing access is already enticing nations to the region, heightening security challenges and geopolitical competition.”

China and Russia are working together to gain control over the region, say analysts.

“We really just need to be clear-eyed about some of their intentions and, how we can be like thinking about their long-term interests and, how we can best protect ours,” Iris Ferguson, US deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Arctic and global resilience told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank on Thursday.

Canada in April announced a defence plan called “Our north; strong and free”, which aims to spend $8.1bn over five years with a strong focus on the Arctic. It included increased spending on surveillance equipment and helicopters, and more troop deployment to northern hubs.

Former special forces commander Glenn Cowan, who now runs ONE9, a defence technology venture fund in Ottawa, said Canada has a responsibility to proactively protect “fortress North America”.

He added that while First Nations communities are the best source of local knowledge there needs to be an effective and timely response if or when threats are detected.

“This policy is attempting to position Canada as a serious Arctic nation, but diplomacy and a few consulates won’t do the work of technological investment, persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” he said.