Canada, Russia Build Arctic Forces - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

As Ice Recedes, Nations Maneuver for Control

Tensions are rising in the Arctic as the receding ice cap sparks competition for new shipping lanes and access to undersea minerals and oil.

Canada and Russia recently declared their intentions to train and equip new military units for operations at the top of the world. Meanwhile, officials in the seven Arctic nations - Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden - are arguing about what constitutes aggressive behavior in the High North.

Since the start of the year, Russian bomber flights, NATO far-north exercises and Canadian pledges have raised the political temperature in the region - and then came Russia's March 27 publication of a policy paper declaring its intent to develop Arctic forces to protect a continental shelf it said would become the nation's "leading resource base" by 2020.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev elaborated several days later with a newspaper commentary criticizing the notion that the Arctic is a global resource, free for exploitation by international energy companies.

"The United States of America, Norway, Denmark and Canada are conducting a united and coordinated policy of barring Russia from the riches of the shelf," Patrushev wrote in the March 30 issue of the government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. "It is quite obvious that much of this doesn't coincide with economic, geopolitical and defense interests of Russia, and constitutes a systemic threat to its national security."

Canadian officials reacted quickly.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters the same day that Canada "will not be bullied" by the new Russian force.

New Forces

In late February, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay accused Moscow of sending bombers too close to Canadian airspace. He vowed that Canadian Forces CF-18 fighter jets will intercept Russian aircraft every time they come near the country.

But Georgiy Mamedov, the Russian ambassador to Canada, said at the time that Canada was informed in advance of the flight, which he called routine.

"I have a hard time explaining this bizarre outburst to Moscow right now," Mamedov told journalists.

Nerves were hardly settled by Russia's announcement that it planned to create an Arctic military force.

The unit would provide "military security under different military-political circumstances," according to the policy document, "The Foundations of State Policy of Russian Federation in Arctic Area for the Period Up to 2020 and Beyond."

The document was approved by President Dmitri Medvedev in September, but kept under wraps until it was posted to the Security Council Web site.

Three days later, a senior Russian lawmaker said the Arctic force would consist of existing capacities optimized for new challenges.

"The military grouping will be created on the basis of the already existing Northern and Pacific Fleets, and also of the military districts that border the Arctic Ocean," said Vyacheslav Popov, chairman of the Commission on Sea National Policy in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council.

But Russia would create new border guard facilities and modernize nearby airfields, said Popov, the former chief commander of the Northern Fleet.

Just a few days later, Canadian officials announced similar plans of their own. Canada intends to create a 500-strong Army unit - four companies of 120 troops apiece - for Far North operations, said Army Lt. Col. Bernie Ciarroni of the Directorate of Land Force Development.

Ciarroni said the Arctic force - made up of reservists but backed by regular forces - will be able to field platoon-size units soon and will likely hold its first exercise this fall. But development will continue over the next five years, especially to identify and procure specialized gear for northern operations, he said.

The units will train in the Arctic twice a year to start, but that is expected to be expanded to around four times a year when the force is fully in place. Still, weather will limit deployments to the spring and fall.

"If it is 72 [degrees] below zero and pitch-dark, I don't think we'll be up there unless we really had to be," Ciarroni said.

Logistics limits the size of the High North force. "We don't want to have a force that's too big, that's unsustainable up there," Ciarroni said.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had sought for several years a bigger military presence in the Arctic, citing the need to protect economically vital deposits of oil, natural gas and minerals.

"Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic - we either use it or lose it," Harper said in July 2007, announcing plans to launch a new fleet of cold-water patrol ships, build a new icebreaker and establish an Arctic training base. "And make no mistake - this government intends to use it."

Russian Reaction

Russian officials, in turn, accused Canadian politicians of creating a dispute where there is none. Privately, Russian diplomats said they are bothered by the saber-rattling. They pointed out that they have been helping Canadian efforts in Afghanistan, providing the Canadian Forces with intelligence about the region near Kandahar, where troops are fighting.

On March 30, Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov published an opinion article in Toronto's National Post newspaper questioning "the aggressive tone taken toward the Russian Federation" by Harper and MacKay.

Serdyukov said a more significant threat to Canadian sovereignty in the north is the U.S. view that the Northwest Passage is an international waterway. Canada claims that passage as its own.

Harper also has signaled concern about foreign military vessels, including those from the United States, entering Canadian northern territory without Canada's permission.

"Why would Mr. Harper single out Russia for such harsh treatment?" Serdyukov wrote. "Perhaps it's because taking an aggressive tone with the United States, Canada's most important trading partner and home to a newly elected administration that is popular with Canadians, could be politically costly."

Nordic Exercises

Russia's foreign minister underlined concerns about NATO's Arctic intentions and Norway's effort to strengthen its High North defenses after a March 24 meeting with Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store in Moscow.

"I must note we were surprised that the maneuvers being held in the Norwegian waters practice operations in the event of a deterioration in a conflict over access to resources in the Arctic," Sergei Lavrov said at a post-meeting news conference.

Lavrov was talking about NATO's Cold Response exercises, held March 16-25 in northern Norway. More than 7,000 troops from France, Germany and Spain and 250 from neutral Sweden and Finland played out a fictional scenario in which hostile power Northland seized the offshore oilfields and other mineral assets of a country called Midland.

Store said the exercise posed no threat to Russia or its Arctic interests.

"Norway has been observing an expansion of Russian activities in its northern territories that involve warships, planes and its submarine fleet operations for some time," Store said at a Moscow news conference. "We do not see this buildup as a threat to Norway. It is Russia's right."

Russia held its own Arctic exercise during the last four days of Cold Response. At Vorkuta in the northern Barents Sea, supersonic Tu-160s and older Tu-95 bombers dropped precision bombs and missiles.

Moscow: No NATO for Finland

In the wake of the exercises, a top Russian official warned Finland not to consider joining NATO.

"Russia could mount a whole range of military, political and economic countermeasures if Finland chose to join NATO," said Yuli Kvitsinsky, vice chairman of the Duma's Committee for International Affairs (CIA), interviewed March 28 on Finnish public broadcaster YLE.

"A full NATO membership by Finland may lead to a deterioration of bilateral relations between the two countries," Kvitsinsky said. "Finland should not place this relationship at risk by joining a military alliance."

The Finnish government's Report on Security and Defense policy, published in January, left the door open for NATO membership. The government is split on the issue: Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb believes Finland could apply for full NATO membership the year after parliamentary elections in 2011, while Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has said he could not see Finland joining NATO before 2019. ■

Nabi Abdullaev contributed to this report from Moscow.

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