The U.S. will open its northernmost diplomatic post in the Norwegian Arctic city of Tromsoe, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said Thursday, at a time when cooperation between the Arctic nations has been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The region is of increasing strategic importance as the ice cap opens up new shipping lanes and attracts other countries seeking its largely untapped natural resources.
“To deepen our own involvement in the Far North, I am announcing today that the United States will open a US presence station in Tromsoe,” Blinken told reporters after a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo.
“For us, the presence post in Tromsoe is really an opportunity to have a diplomatic footprint above the Arctic Circle,” he said.
His announcement comes three weeks after Norway took over from Russia the presidency of the Arctic Council, a forum set up in 1996 to discuss issues related to the Arctic.
The council consists of the eight Arctic states of Russia, the United States, Canada, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark.
Cooperation between the western Arctic states and Moscow in the Arctic organ has been frozen since the invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken said on Thursday that the US approach is aimed at more diplomacy in the region.
“Our whole approach is to ensure that the Arctic remains an area of peaceful cooperation,” he said.
