Foreign Minister Mélanie Jolie is preparing an “Arctic foreign policy” aimed at preparing for a more tense period in the region’s international relations.
She mentioned the policy to Bloomberg News, saying it would involve working closely with NATO counterparts, including Finland and Sweden, which recently joined the military alliance.
Her office says it is a foreign policy document, not a strategy, in contrast to the broad plan Ms. Jolie released for the Indo-Pacific region.
This news comes on the heels of recent visits by Mélanie Jolie to the Swedish capital Stockholm and Iqaluit to meet with the territory's premiers.
The Liberals recently appointed former minister Caroline Bennett as ambassador to Denmark, a role they said was focused on closer ties with Greenland.
The government's defense policy update, published in April, focused largely on the North, although it fell short of the spending target set by NATO on military matters.
MI Jolie says the policy document is necessary because the region's geopolitics has changed rapidly since the decades-long “low tension” situation, meaning new partnerships in military exercises, intelligence sharing and acquisition of defense equipment must be established.
The Liberals launched the Arctic and Arctic Policy Framework in 2019, focusing on cross-jurisdictional cooperation on issues such as education and health care, as well as military matters. Ms. Jolie indicated that this document will include a new chapter on international relations.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States, Finland and other Arctic nations have issued new strategies aimed, among other things, at limiting any co-election of sovereign territories, even if Moscow insists it has no such ambitions.
Greenland released its Arctic strategy in February, which included a promise to establish a diplomatic mission in Ottawa. “Greenland encourages the establishment of a Canadian consulate in Greenland,” the policy document stated.
In an analysis published last week, Canadian political scientist Marc Lantin said Canada should follow suit and use the office to better cooperate on Canada and Europe's goals to obtain strategic materials needed for a low-carbon world beyond China.
“As the security of the Canadian Arctic requires increased cooperation and communication with transatlantic allies, Greenland must be included in this dialogue given its location in the middle (in some cases literally) of the myriad security issues currently affecting the Far North.” wrote Mr. Lantini, a professor at the Arctic University in Norway.
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