Coordination of international organizations of the north-arctic regions: to the program of the presidency of the Russian Federation in the Arctic council

The development and strengthening of international relations of the North-Arctic countries and regions have always been on the agenda of the human community and our country in order to sustainable increase of their socio-economic potential and maintenance the ecological balance in this zone.

This is confirmed once again by the recently adopted decree No. 164, signed by the President of the Russian Federation on March 5 of 2020 “On the Fundamentals of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Arctic up to 2035”1. It makes sense to cite the first two paragraphs from Article 16 of this decree in full, since they are most directly related to the topic of this article, namely:

“16. The main tasks in the development of international cooperation are:

• a)    strengthening of good-neighborly relations with the Arctic states on a bilateral basis and within the framework of multilateral regional cooperation formats, including the Arctic Council, the Coastal Arctic “Five” and the Barents / Euro-Arctic Region Council, building up the international economic, scientific, technological, cultural and cross-border cooperation, as well as interaction in the field of research on global climate change, environmental protection and effective development of natural resources in compliance with high environmental standards;

• b)    consolidation of role of the Arctic Council as a key regional association, coordinating international activities in the region” ².

Today, the system of the major international platforms of the highest state and regional levels for discussing and finding solutions to important issues of the reclamation and development of the North Arctic spaces is undergoing certain changes. These processes have been actively discussed lately at various forums, conferences and symposia around the world. The 2019 was especially "fruitful" for these events [1, Zhuravel V.P.]. They showed how complex the issues of interstate and interregional coordination of joint efforts of the North Arctic countries and regions, with a view to their being sufficiently focused on the solution of problems of real priority and importance for all mankind.

The Arctic Council and its coordinating role

The development of the Arctic spatial formations of our country and the world Arctic has been the focus of much research work [2, Arctic: Development Strategy; 3, Arctic Space of Russia in the 21st Century; 4, Leksin V.N., Porfiriev B.N.; 5, Socio-economic Problems of the Russian Arctic; 6, Tatarkin A.I., Loginov V.G., Zakharchuk E.A.; 7, Heininen L.].

Recently, there have been very cardinal proposals for a radical modification of the entire system of relations between the largest states of the world — the USA, China and Russia in terms of solving Arctic problems by creating the so-called “Arctic League”. This idea came from Irvin Studin, President of the Institute for 21st Century Problems. (Toronto). His article “How the New Arctic League Could Save the World after the Coronavirus Pandemic” was published on May 11, 2020 by the “South China Morning Post” in Hong Kong. In his article, the author emphasizes that the new structure could become the first large regional peacekeeping institution of the 21st century, which will enable Washington, Beijing and Moscow to unite under a common coordinating umbrella and turn the Arctic world space into a demonstration of interethnic friendly relations 3.

Returning to the problem of coordinating the activities of international organizations in the North Arctic regions, the role of the International Arctic Council should be noted first of all. As is known, it is the leading intergovernmental forum, as it is sometimes called, the “Arctic Parliament”, promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction between the Arctic states, indigenous communities and the rest of the inhabitants of the Arctic in connection with the solution of common Arctic problems 4. It includes eight circumpolar countries — Russia, USA, Canada, Norway, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and six working groups. The council also includes several expert and task forces. The effectiveness of their activities in specific areas is very high, as stated on the council's website. This council is an intergovernmental platform of the highest state rank.

In recent years, however, the activity of the North-Arctic territories of the macro-regional and regional levels, as well as local self-government bodies, has increased significantly. Their associations include not only regional representatives of the circumpolar countries, but also a number of countries that are not directly in the Arctic zone, but have a significant political and economic interest in the development of the Arctic basin. These are, for example, long-standing and active organizations such as the well-proven Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC), mentioned above in the government decree, as well as the Northern Forum, in which the administrative bodies of the regions of the North Arctic countries of the world participate.

Both the Arctic Council and each of the currently existing macro-regional organizations of the North Arctic countries have their own working groups, which now number more than four dozen in total. As for the Arctic Council, according to the logic of its creation, it should be focused on discussing Arctic problems at the global level. Regional organizations study the development of specific macro-regional associations. But all these problems cannot be solved without a sufficiently clear coordination of the activities of all these organizations, without taking into account the general laws of the development of nature, man and society in the Arctic, which go far beyond the particular problems of each macro-regional association. And these coordination processes should, apparently, be under the auspices of the International Arctic Council and many other specialized international organizations, as well as set the main scientifically based line, which must be adhered to by both macro-regional and regional associations.

Nevertheless, at present, unfortunately, there are no such clear methodologies, tools and mechanisms of interaction between international intergovernmental, macroregional and regional North Arctic forums and associations. This is especially true for regional structures. In their practical activities, they act in isolation, sometimes contradict each other, make attempts to extract any special preferences for their associations from their activities, while not observing the basic leading principles and laws of the development of the Arctic zone as a single spatial formation that has very specific natural, ecological and socio-economic features.

The problems of coordination of the activities of intergovernmental and interregional forums should be in the sphere of work of their secretariats. However, the secretariats (by the way, their numerical composition is very small) are mainly aimed at solving the current organizational issues of these organizations. They are simply not in a position to carry out any strategic assessments and developments to improve the methodology and tools for their interaction.

In this context, there is a need to strengthen the role of the Arctic Council significantly in coordinating relationships between all the established and emerging international structures of the North Arctic countries and regions, which, apparently, is associated with the organization of a specialized substructure of this council. It should work out and propose a sufficiently clear and scientifically grounded methodology, mechanisms and tools for coordinating the activities of all these forums and associations to give this process a focus on solving both global and regional priority problems of the Arctic, and, if possible, with minimal costs for society.

Macro-regional organizations of the North-Arctic regions

Northern Forum . The development of international relations of the North-Arctic regions in recent decades is closely related to the creation of the “Northern Forum”, an international nonpolitical organization of the North-Arctic regions of the world. In the coming 2021, this organization will be 30 years old. It makes a significant contribution to the development of interregional international cooperation in the North-Arctic territories of the world. Today, the Northern Forum acts as an observer at the Arctic Council.

Recall that the “Northern Forum” was created in November 1991 in Anchorage, Alaska, USA at the international conference “Cooperation in a Changing World”. Its “founding father” can rightfully be considered the Governor of Alaska, Walter J. Hickel, a businessman, statesman and public figure, who was a head of state administration twice in the periods 1966–1969 and 1990– 1994. During his lifetime, this organization reached its maximum development. In 1995, it included 24 regions, and not only the North Arctic zone, but also a number of territories of countries that are not part of the Arctic zone of the world, but have political and economic interests in the Arctic basin.

Today, the Northern Forum includes 14 regions, 10 of which are the North Arctic subjects of the Russian Federation, and 4 are foreign territories5. The forum has more than two dozen working groups on various sectoral problems of both natural-ecological and socio-economic nature that are important for the North-Arctic zone of the world.

Unfortunately, the number of Forum participants, in comparison with 1995, has decreased by 10 territories. It is very important that the regions that left the Forum were active initiators of the creation of this organization. Their exit significantly reduces its possibilities as an influential international structure. These are the territories of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Japan, China, Mongolia, as well as 4 Russian territories. This also includes the regions of the countries belonging to the Arctic Council and the countries of the European zone and Northeast Asia, which can represent a source of large volumes of oncoming cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route in the European-Asian direction, which is very important for Russia.

This reduction in the membership of the Forum is, apparently, due to the negative role of the introduction of all kinds of sanctions by a number of countries, including the Arctic, in relation to Russia. But among these reasons, one can also name insufficient attention to the activities of the Forum of the International Arctic Council, which, most likely, did not influence to the required extent on the neutralization of these sanctions, at least in the zone of the global Arctic, did not actively support the work of various macro-regional organizations, even despite the fact that they are part of its observers. Now the functions of their support are not at all included in the scope of his activities. Should he do it or not - this is a separate debatable question, which, in the author's opinion, needs a positive answer. This answer also correlates with the aforementioned paragraph of the decree of the President of Russia, which proposes to assign to the Arctic Council the role of a key association of the North Arctic countries and regions, coordinating international activities in the entire Arctic basin.

Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC). Another very important and successfully functioning macro-regional organization in the European part of the Arctic zone of the world is the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC).

As noted, BEAC is an important platform for international cooperation, because the Barents region is the most populous and most economically developed region of the Arctic, which has a rich resource, scientific and innovative base 6. It is very important that the experience of crossborder cooperation in the North-Arctic regions is practically unparalleled here 7. Since its inception in 1993, BEAC has deservedly established itself as an authoritative interstate structure playing an important role in preserving northern Europe as a zone of stability and good neighborliness.

Fourteen regions cooperate within the BEAC, which are part of the four Arctic countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. There is also an institute of municipalities — twin cities. The main executive decision-making body is a ministerial meeting that takes place every two years. BEAC has 14 working groups, which are the basis for carrying out the main activities in cooperation of the regions included in this organization in various areas of natural-ecological and socioeconomic development 8.

BEAC participants note that this organization is often perceived as “the younger brother of the Arctic Council”. They believe that both of these organizations should complement each other. The author of this article adheres to the same point of view, but the question arises naturally — how and who will develop and propose this methodology for ensuring complementarity and interaction between the Arctic Council and the Council of the Barents / Euro-Arctic Region?

It is also emphasized that the BEAC is increasingly faced with new global challenges and threats that are not only local transboundary, but also of a regional nature: an increase in climate change, violation of borders, illegal migration, an increase in the volume of extraction of natural resources, increased industrial pressure on the ecological environment, and other risks. In this regard, it is important to continue work on developing a mechanism for collective response to such challenges. But we emphasize once again that this mechanism and the corresponding tools can be created and implemented only in close cooperation with the Arctic Council, which should be responsible not only for solving global problems of the entire zone of the world Arctic, but also for solving problems and developing organizations at the macro-regional level, one of which the BEAC is.

Bering / Pacific-Arctic Council (BPAC). In the past two years, a very promising project on the formation of a transboundary Russian-American Council of the Bering / Pacific-Arctic Region (BPAC) has been discussed [8, Voronenko A.L., Krasnopolskiy B.Kh., Fuhs P.]. This project is of rather great interest for many countries and regions, not only in the northern part of the Pacific Basin, but also in the European part of the North and Arctic zone and Northeast Asia. A number of publications of the Institute of Economic Research FEB RAS are devoted to the problems of the Far-Eastern and Pacific Arctic, as well as the project to create the BPAC [9, Krasnopolskiy B.Kh.; 10, Minakir P.A., Procapalo O.M.; 11, Minakir P.A., Krasnopolskiy B.Kh., Leonov S.N.].

The Institute initiated a discussion of the project last year at two very large international meetings of scientists and specialists in the field of studying the world Arctic basin.

The first meeting is the 24th meeting of the Russian-American Pacific Partnership (RAPP), which was held at the end of June 2019 in Khabarovsk9. . At this meeting, an Initiative Working Group was created, which was entrusted with working out this issue, trying to collect together all the scientific and applied rationale for the possibility and feasibility of creating a BPAC and to develop primary documents draft. The author of this article was included in this group by the order of Derek Norberg, Executive Director of RAPP, President of the Council on US-Russia Relations, as the coordinator from the Russian side.

The second meeting is the International Forum “Arctic: Present and Future” of the Association of Polar Explorers (ASPOL), which took place on December 5-7, 2019 in St. Petersburg 10. A special session of the Forum “Prospects for Russian-American Cooperation in the Bering Region” was devoted to the creation of the BPAC, to the organization of which Korchunov N.V., Ambassador for Special Assignments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, made a huge contribution.

This session was moderated by Pogodaev M.A., Deputy Minister for Arctic Development and Northern Affairs of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The participants in the discussion who made their reports were Korchunov N.V., Ambassador for Special Assignments of the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Senior Russian Official in the International Arctic Council; Krasnopolskiy B.Kh., Chief Researcher, IER FEB RAS; Krivorotov A., the member of the Expert Council of the Russian-Norwegian Scientific and Educational Consortium in the field of international energy business, member of the non-profit organization of the Russian International Affairs Council; Otke A.I., member of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, President of the Chukotka Indigenous Peoples Association; Fus P., President of the Board of Directors, Alaska Maritime Exchange (USA).

The increased attention to the Bering region and the Pacific Arctic is explained by the following.

As it follows from the natural and geographical realities, the world Arctic basin is based on two of its “supporting” sectors at the junctions with the Atlantic and Pacific basins in its development. The processes taking place in these “reference” zones in terms of the impact on the development of the entire Arctic basin, have a well-established equilibrium geographic and environmental impact. These “supporting” sectors have a very significant impact on the socio-economic development of the coastal Arctic territories, ensuring the livelihoods of both indigenous and newcomers, the development of sea freight along the Northern Sea Route, etc.

But the world community does not pay equal attention to these established proportions and processes.

In particular, with regard to the Atlantic sector, here in the international context, as shown above, a very effective Barents / Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) has been created [12, Berkman R.A., Vylegzhanin A.N., Young O.R.].

As for the Pacific sector, no such international structures have been created here at all, although the problematic level of this very promising “intersection” of the Pacific and Arctic oceans at the junction of the Eurasian and North American continents is not lower than the “intersection” of the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Basin [12, Berkman R.A., Vylegzhanin A.N., Young O.R.].

The resolution of the issue of creating a new Bering / Pacific-Arctic Region Council will eliminate this erroneous “bias” in the attention of the world community to these sectors. This will make it possible to establish permanent working contacts and exchange of information between these macroregional councils (BEAC and BPAC), which act as “outposts” of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF) in its West and East. This will also allow organizing their more coordinated and balanced interaction with the International Arctic Council and other already established international Arctic organizations.

Task Force of the Arctic Council

Certainly, any transformations in the system of interaction between the North-Arctic regions of the world have their own “pitfalls” and their own problems. First of all, as noted above, certain political and economic contradictions between the Arctic states, leading to increased military confrontation between them, as well as sanctions against the Russian Federation. This is es- pecially true of relations between Russia and the United States, in particular — in the Bering region and the sector of the Pacific Arctic, where these largest Arctic states are bordering. The works cited in the list of references [14, Konyshev V., Sergunin A.; 15, Gudev P.].

In view of the above, it seems necessary to discuss the creation of the BPAC at a higher level in the international community of scientists and specialists in this field. In any case, it is necessary to try to establish good-neighborly and mutually beneficial cross-border relations in this sector of the world Arctic in the interests of both states. By the way, as for American scientists and specialists, especially from the state of Alaska, they perfectly understand the role of Russian researchers in solving various problems and the entire zone of the global Arctic, and the Bering / Pacific region in the transboundary sector of Russia and the United States at the junction of the Eurasian and North American continents. They constantly emphasize in their works the need to establish a fairly close coordination of research and practical activities between our countries in the Arctic zone and its regions 11.

But here again the question arises: how will the elaboration of the problems of establishing clearer coordination between the North Arctic regions, including the promotion of the initiative to create the BPAC, be further advanced? Who exactly, what structure will be involved in this, work with more specific evidence of the need and feasibility of implementing these ideas, with the preparation of the necessary primary documents on the mechanisms of their organization, for their implementation in the activities of interested regional and federal departments and public organizations of both countries, and so on. In this regard, there is a great need for a structure, preferably operating under the auspices of the Arctic Council, which will take over the implementation of these initiatives.

Here the next proposal arises.

The Arctic Council has six permanent working groups, and all these groups are aimed at solving problems of development of various sectoral sectors that are very important for the Arctic basin. Among the expert groups under the Arctic Council from 2015 to the present, there is only one group — the “Black Carbon and Methane Expert Group”, whose task is to assess periodically the progress of the Arctic Council's Framework Program for Action on Black Carbon and Methane. As you can see, there is no structure among the listed groups that would be engaged in improving the activities of the Arctic Council in terms of coordinating its cooperation with macro-regional and regional associations of the North Arctic territories.

But in the Arctic Council there are so-called Task Forces, which are appointed at the ministerial meetings of the participating countries to work on specific issues for a limited period of time, remaining active until they bring the desired results. Experts of the working groups and representatives of the Arctic states take part in the work of the task groups. There are currently no active task forces under the council. The previously created task forces have completed their work and are no longer functional.

And it is the groups of this category that may be of interest from the standpoint of the topic of this article.

Of course, the issue of expanding the very membership of the Arctic Council member states is not on the agenda either today or in the future. The composition of the Arctic countries that are included in it is determined by nature and is not subject to discussion. As for all other interested states, the list of observer countries is open to them. The observers also include representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North. All of them also have the opportunity to participate in various projects and initiatives being implemented in the Arctic Council.

But just this rather complex systemic situation in the structure and activities of the Arctic Council, which is constantly changing in time and space, serves as proof that the council should have some kind of permanent methodology to improve the coordination of its activities with regional associations.

It is for these purposes that it is proposed to create a temporary task force, which will be entrusted with the implementation of this task. Such a methodology should be developed and proposed for practical use to coordinate the activities of the Arctic Council with macro-regional associations of the territories of the North Arctic countries, in particular with the Northern Forum, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and the newly created Bering / Pacific-Arctic region (BPAC). The finalization of the BPAC project should also be entrusted to this task group, since the newly created Russian-American council should enter the system of macro-regional forums and associations in the Arctic zone.

The Task Force in its activities will rely on the latest achievements of science and technology, on the results of research developments of scientific units of their countries and the involvement of leading scientists and specialists in the field of Arctic research, on the implementation of best practices in the implementation of projects for the development of the Arctic and etc.

Its task will be to take all the best in the international experience in the development of the Arctic spaces and to propose special mechanisms and tools for permanent coordination direct and feedback links between the Arctic Council and macroregional organizations of the North Arctic regions. So all these organizations, and not just BEAC, can be viewed as its “little brothers”, for the fate of which it should be responsible.

As the work is completed, the task group will cease to exist, transferring the developed methodology and the corresponding tools for permanent use to the Arctic Council and interregional forums, associations and organizations.

The task force for the development of a methodology for coordinating the activities of the Arctic Council will implement its functions through constant contacts with the working groups of all major interregional forums and associations. This will allow coordinating their efforts to address the priority problems of the North and the Arctic. Here we are not talking about any “violent” actions in contacts with regional structures, about direct interference in their activities, but only about deliberative, explanatory and coordinating actions in the interests of not only individual regions, but also the entire North Arctic basin of our planet as a single spatial formation.

A schematic diagram of interactions between the target group being created and these regional associations for solving its problems may look like this (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the functioning of the task force to develop a methodology for coordinating the activities of the Arctic Council with macro-regional organizations.

By the way, one of the priorities of Iceland's current chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2019–2021 was a task to strengthen the activities of the Arctic Council itself. It was emphasized that Iceland's chairmanship will be aimed at maintaining cooperation, which has always been a strong point of the Arctic Council. Thorough consultations between member states and permanent participants should have continued, and new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation with observers should have been explored [16, Zhuravel V.P.]. But, as can be seen, the support of the outlined types of cooperation of the Arctic Council in Iceland's program did not include strengthening cooperation with interregional and regional forums and platforms for constructive dialogue on Arctic problems. There is an opportunity to take effective steps in this direction during Russia's chairmanship in the Arctic Council.

Conclusion

Thus, this article is based on the analysis of the existing interactions of international intergovernmental, macroregional and regional organizations of the North Arctic countries and regions, the proposal is substantiated to create a special unit of the Arctic Council — its temporary task group, which will be aimed at developing a methodology for coordinating the directions of its work with data associations. This seems to be extremely necessary for the world community due to the fact that the natural, ecological, political, and socio-economic processes taking place in the Arctic are constantly accelerating in their fluctuations and spatial transformations. And this is primarily reflected in the primary regional spatial formations. It is necessary to keep a “finger on the pulse” of these global and regional changes, to provide a certain lead in forecasts of their development, to anticipate emerging risks, to promptly adjust the directions of the activities of the Arctic Council and its working groups and coordinate them with international Arctic organizations at the regional level to neutralize all kinds of cataclysms in the world Arctic basin.

These are the tasks that should be solved by the created task force of the Arctic Council for development a methodology for coordinating its activities.

This proposal is quite relevant due to the possibility of its implementation during the Russian Federation's chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023. By the way, due to the importance of this event, it seems that there is a need to open a special section in the journal “Arctic and North” to accommodate in it various proposals of scientists and specialists for the program of Russia's chairmanship in this council.