March 10
By Julia O’Malley
In March 2023, the VIII International Conference “The Arctic: Sustainable Development” was held. The purpose of the conference is to promote sustainable socio-economic development and exploration of the Arctic, stimulate scientific, technical and innovative activities in the region, create favorable conditions for attracting investment in development projects of the Arctic zone.
The event was attended by well-known scientists, as well as enterprises and organizations interested in the development of the Arctic.
A round table “Global processes in the field of natural, humanitarian and social sciences in the Arctic and Asia” was held within the framework of the conference. The participants discussed trends and prospects for the development of international scientific cooperation in the Arctic region, including the scientific interests of Asian countries. During the discussion, issues of consolidating the creative potential of scientific and educational organizations for studying of global processes in the field of natural, humanitarian and social sciences in the Arctic and Asia were raised.
The participants also discussed how to effectively cooperate with foreign partners and get applied results from joint research.
The past conference shows that in its work in the Arctic, Russia is fully prepared to switch to Asian countries, gradually excluding the US and EU countries from this work. Representatives of China, Mongolia, India and others express interest in cooperation and investment in large projects.
All this suggests that attempts to isolate Russia by the US and the EU in the Arctic have no prospects. Under these conditions, Moscow continues to establish cooperation in the development of the region with other foreign partners.
Asian countries show interest in events held in Russia as part of the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, have the opportunity to get acquainted with current investment projects and make decisions on participation in them without taking into account competition from the United States and Western countries that ignore these forums.
The refusal of American scientific and commercial structures to participate in such international conferences in Russia blocks the possibility of establishing mutually beneficial cooperation in this area, as well as obtaining data on topical issues of exploration and development of the Arctic, its role in satisfaction of global demand for energy resources, world experience in exploration and drilling operations in the difficult conditions of the Arctic using modern innovative technologies, LNG, transport and environmental safety, international cooperation.
Representatives of the scientific community, including the University of Alaska, believe that in the current geopolitical realities, Washington should look for a way for mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia in the Arctic, including in order to prevent the growth of cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic region.