Meeting of the Parliament 02 March 2023
I thank the cabinet secretary, Angus Robertson, for bringing these important issues to the chamber. I echo his words on the importance of continuing our educational support in relation to the Arctic region, including the preservation of indigenous languages.
Scotland has a responsibility to co-operate and work with our northern neighbours. Particularly now, strategic co-operation with our European Arctic neighbours must continue in order to ensure a safe, peaceful and prosperous Arctic. There is much that Scotland and the UK as a whole can be doing to help and support the Arctic region and its nations. The Arctic now exists as a complex environment, with more state and non-state actors involved than ever before. As my colleague Sarah Boyack said, we must preserve the Arctic as an area of peace and co-operation.
We very much welcome the Scottish Government’s support for our Scottish Labour amendment. Russia shares 53 per cent of its border with the Arctic Ocean, and more than two and a half million of Russia’s inhabitants live in Arctic territory, which is about half the population of the Arctic. The Russian Federation is geographically and politically tied to the Arctic, and its presence in the region must not be overlooked.
Under Putin’s leadership, the Russian Federation has recently changed its state Arctic policy. It references no plans for continued co-operation with the Arctic Council; instead, it references the pursuit of Russian national interest. Full strategic co-operation and engagement with all Arctic states will simply not be possible while Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine continues. Any framework that sets out to improve Arctic co-operation must not infringe on the diplomatic sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation by the United Kingdom and its allies regarding the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. The Scottish Government needs to recognise the new reality and shape co-operation based on the high-security situation.
As my colleague Richard Leonard commented, multilateral engagement must be at the centre of future co-operation efforts in the Arctic region. My colleagues have already mentioned the melting glaciers in the Arctic, which represent the devastating effect that global warming is having on our planet. Climate change and global warming have securitised the Arctic as a region. Changes in the Arctic environment are greater than they are everywhere else, and temperatures in the Arctic rise three times faster than the global average, with impacts across the globe.
The Arctic should be at the heart of our sustainability goals. The current climate crisis poses a significant threat to the Arctic region and to its almost four million inhabitants. That is something that we can strive to co-operate on. Scotland and the Arctic region should share the same climate action ambitions, now and in the future.
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