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Tag: China

Iceland supports China in Council efforts

Iceland supports China in its effort to become a permanent observer in the Arctic Council. Norway opposes.

China currently has an ad-hoc observer status along with the European Union, Italy, Japan and South Korea. They all have to send request to observe each meeting, but they are usually granted.

China, EU, Italy and South Korea were all denied a permanent observer status in 2009.

Permanent observers receive invitations for most Arctic Council meetings and they have an easier way to participate in Council-related projects.

Iceland is now trying to smooth the stiff relations between China and Norway. Össur Skarphéðinsson, the foreign minister of Iceland, has spoken to both the premier of China, Wen Jiabao, and his colleague from Norway, foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre, about the issue.

Össur hopes for a better understanding between the nations.

He states that the Arctic Council is in the process of creating obligations for states to fulfill if they wish to receive the permanent observer status.

Sources

Fréttablaðið

June 14, 2012
Framing China and Australia in the Antarctic

Framing of the Antarctic is different between states. In a new interview with Anne-Mary Brady, we look at the framing theory, identifying two prominent Antarctic players, Australia and China.

Australia claims 42% of Antarctic territory, while China has three bases in Antarctica (two of them on the Australian claim) and is rapidly expanding its operations there.

Official framing is an important tool by which Antarctic players can boost the legitimacy of their right to engage in Antarctica. State’s utilise official frames when there is a perceived legitimacy deficit that must be addressed and as part of an ongoing process of legitimation of their interests, according to Brady.

Here is the interview:

Sources

IPY Interview

May 22, 2012
Denmark wants China near AC

Denmark is looking to pave the way for China to the Arctic Council. Denmark wants China to become a permanent observer state in the organization.

China has a temporary hearing to the Council today. Denmark stood down from its role as Chair at the ministerial meeting in Nuuk in May this year, and Sweden took over.

“It is in the best interest for Denmark to help China to come closer to all the decision making in the Arctic,” Villy Søvndal, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Denmark said to Danish newspaper Berlinske Tidene.

“It’s not only in the interest of Denmark, but the whole Council, that nations with great interest in the Arctic can follow what happens there,” he said.

Denmark (including Faroe Islands and Greenland), Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Canada and USA are members of the Council.

Six working groups of indigenous people have permanent participant status but Denmark wants China to be on par with permanent observer states. They are six and are France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Søvndal says that China can’t be ignored because of the size and importance of the country.

Søvndal also states that this will not lead to Denmark’s position weakening. “Definitely not, this is not a hug change, but an important one.”

China has applied for the position which has not been given to the country, yet. Mixed feelings surround big players like China and the European Union getting the Permanent Observer status, especially amongst the indigenous people.

Søvndal predecessor, Per Stig Møller, agrees with the Minister. “We are interested in that more countries understand the difficulties around the Arctic. It is positive that more countries want to observe the decisions made in the Council.”

The decision will be made in the next ministerial meeting, in Sweden in 2013.

Source: Berlinske Tidene

November 1, 2011
When the ice disappears – Denmark as a major Arctic power

“For the first time in human history a new sea opens before our feet and long time dreams of the old king of Denmark, Christian IV, comes true, long after his passage, where sailing through the north to China is possible”. This is mentioned in a book that Denmarks largest publishing house, Gyldendal, has recently published, “‘When the ice disappears – Denmark as a major Arctic power, the oil in Greenland and the fight over the North Pole”.

The book is its first on Denmark’s modern involvement in the Arctic. It is a critical, investigative book by a journalist, who has followed the Arctic for some time. Interviewees for the book include Greenland premier Mr. Kuupik Kleist and former Danish minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Per Stig Møller. The book is aimed at the general public, and covers such topics as why Denmark took the lead in the process leading to the Ilulissat-declaration of 2008. It investigates the political reasoning behind Denmark’s expected claim to the seabed in the Arctic Ocean up past the North Pole, and it goes deep into the discussion in Greenland for and against oil. It finally examines Denmark’s approach to security in the high north and revisits some key historical pointers: The Norwegian claim to parts of East Greenland in 1931, the German Nazi endeavors in East Greenland during the Second World War and other threats to Danish sovereignty over Greenland.

The author, Martin Breum, graduated from the Danish School of Journalism in 1982 and has since then been reporting from political conflicts from all over the world. In the later years a new focus on climate change has caught his interest. The book is in Danish only

Further information and graphics

May 3, 2011
Chinese Arctic Policy

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has launched a new report entitled “China and the High North prepare for an ice-free Arctic” dealing with the emerging interest of China on the anticipated Arctic Ocean shipping routes. The report is written by Linda Jakobson, the Acting Programme Director and Beijing-based Senior Researcher of the China and Global Security Programme of SIPRI, and is based on material gathered from officials, scholars and other primary sources in China.
The main theme of the report is that despite the fact that China has no official Arctic policy “the country does appear to have a clear agenda regarding the Arctic”. Until now, China has mainly concentrated on the melting sea ice in the Arctic and its impact on China from the environmental point of view, but many Chinese academics are pointing out that China must broaden its focus from environmental issues to cover commercial and political issues as well.

Hu Zhengyue, Chinese assistant minister of foreign affairs stated in Arctic forum organized by the Norwegian Government on Svalbard in June 2009 that China supports Arctic countries’ sovereign and judicial rights under international law, pointing though out the need of refinement and development of the contemporary international law due to the circumstances that are arising from the melting of the ice. China points out that despite that large areas of the Arctic are under jurisdiction of coastal Arctic states, the Arctic cannot be seen as a regional matter only, due to the many international implications the emerging shipping routes and possible energy exploitation will have in future.

March 3, 2010