MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The Unites States and NATO are demonstrating increased military activity in the Arctic, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador at Large Nikolay Korchunov said.

"The United States and other NATO countries, including non-Arctic, continue to expand their military activity in the region. They are increasing their potential and expanding the scope of drills in the Arctic region," he said at a plenary session of the 9th international conference on the sustainable development of the Far East and Arctic regions.

According to the diplomat, the alliance’s course toward the militarization of the region "revels that the approaches of Western Arctic countries are based on the ideas of confrontation, rivalry, containment, and the use of force scenarios in their own interests in the Arctic to the prejudice of other countries."

He stressed that Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO could lead to further militarization of the Arctic. "One cannot fail to bear in mind that after Finland and Sweden joined the alliance, all the countries participating in the Arctic Council, except Russia, became members of the North Atlantic bloc. This, of course, can lead to further militarization of the Arctic region, which carries risks of increasing military and political tension in the high latitudes," he added.