MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. Russia is not interested in delegating its share of responsibility for the Arctic Region to other countries, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy, senior official in the Arctic Council Nikolai Korchunov said in a video conference entitled An International Element of the Strategy for Development of the Arctic until 2035: Opportunities and Threats.

"Ever more often claims are being heard that the Arctic Council is no longer relevant and another organization should be created instead to incorporate non-Arctic countries that would decide Arctic issues. This leads to another conclusion that time is ripe to give thought to concluding a treaty on the Arctic identical to the treaty on the Antarctic, where participating countries will have identical rights," Korchunov said. "Russia is not interested in delegating its rights to other states."

The Americans are not prepared for this, either, he remarked. "In this respect it is impossible to disagree with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s statement made in May 2019 that there are two groups of countries — Arctic and non-Arctic," Kochunov said. "He said so in relation to China, which positioned itself as a near-Arctic state. We disagree with this."