MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. With all of Russia’s neighbors in the Arctic region most likely set to join NATO, the alliance’s expanded presence will increase military and political tensions and weaken international security in the region, said Russian Ambassador-at-Large Nikolay Korchunov, who also serves as chairman of the Arctic Council’s Senior Officials Committee.

According to him, it was critical to incorporate Arctic issues into Russia’s updated foreign policy concept because the foreign policy situation in the region had changed. "Russia’s neighbors [in the Arctic region] are only unfriendly Western countries, most likely all of which will become NATO member states," he noted on the sidelines of a discussion club at the Project Office for Arctic Development on Tuesday.

"NATO’s ‘invasion’ of the Arctic will lead to escalated military and political tensions and impaired security, and will complicate the prospects for multilateral cooperation because many countries, including those on the Arctic Council, will have to follow directives from Brussels," the diplomat said.

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved Russia’s new foreign policy concept, which replaced the previous version from 2016. The new concept stresses that Russia aims for a peaceful resolution of international issues in the Arctic and will counteract the policy of unfriendly countries of militarizing the region. The concept notes that Russia aspires to maintain peace and stability, increase ecological sustainability, decrease the level of threats to national security in the Arctic, and ensure favorable international conditions for the socio-economic development of Russia’s Arctic zone and the development of the Northern Sea Route as a competitive national transport corridor with the possibility of its international use for freight traffic between Europe and Asia.