“This is not just about Greenland. This is about the Arctic. You have Russia that is trying to become king … It’s oil and gas. It’s our national security. It’s critical minerals,” said Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick to be national security adviser, on Fox News on Wednesday.
Other Arctic countries are watching warily, such as Norway with its Svalbard islands in the freezing far north, which could attract the imperialist eye of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Thursday dismissed any concerns about the archipelago’s potential vulnerability. “Svalbard is Norway, and Svalbard is safe,” Støre said on Norwegian broadcasting service NRK.
But Svalbard — home to more polar bears than inhabitants — lies along a sea route that Russia’s Northern Fleet must pass to reach the Atlantic Ocean, rendering it strategically important for Moscow even though it already owns more Arctic territory than any other country.
Several settlements on Svalbard, where around 2,500 people live, are populated by Russians, dating back to the Soviet era, who mostly live in the second-largest town of Barentsburg. The island is also home to Pyramiden, an abandoned coal-mining town where a Lenin statue overlooks the central square.
The Svalbard Treaty, signed in 1920, grants Norway sovereignty over the archipelago but allows all other signatories to exploit its natural resources, which currently includes 48 parties, including the U.S., Russia and Japan. Only Russia and Norway, however, make use of this right today. Svalbard is also a demilitarized and visa-free zone thanks to the treaty, while mainly attracting researchers and tourists. Most of the inhabitants work in the mining industry.