TROMSOE, Norway — Denmark on Monday takes over the Arctic Council’s rotating chairmanship from Norway at a time when Arctic safety tensions are fraught and U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to annex Greenland.
Denmark selected to call Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland’s overseas affairs minister, to be the brand new chair of the council, the eight-nation grouping of nations that border the Arctic. Denmark has rebuffed Trump’s speak of shopping for the strategic Arctic island, a semi-autonomous territory of the dominion.
Throughout Norway’s two-year flip on the helm of the Arctic Council, the intergovernmental physique was beset by pressure over the right way to take care of Trump and Russia’s struggle in Ukraine. Russia is the largest Arctic nation and was the chair of the council earlier than Norway.
It was one of many few settings the place Western nations and Russia labored collectively intently, however the different seven nations determined to pause their work with Russia within the council shortly after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Arctic Council doesn’t take care of safety points however makes binding agreements on environmental safety and provides a voice to the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic region.
The members are Russia, the US, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Six organizations representing Arctic Indigenous peoples are everlasting members of the council, which was established in 1996. Nations together with France, Germany, China, Japan, India and Korea attend the council’s conferences as observers.