Japanese-Russian seminar on cooperation in the North and the Arctic: is the Barents region a starting point of cooperation in the Arctic?

Abstract

On 9 June 2021, an international Japanese-Russian seminar on cooperation in the Arctic was held on the Zoom platform. The seminar was organised by the Center for Arctic Research and the International Department of Hokkaido University. Supported by the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (2020–2025) grant programme, the Training Platform for Japanese-Russian Economic Cooperation and Humanitarian Exchanges (HaRP, 2017–2022), and the UArctic Thematic Network on Asia in the Arctic. The first speaker was Geir Hønneland, Norwegian research professor at the University of Arctic Tromsø (UiT) and a member of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. He presented his research on the topic ‘Norway and Russia in the Barents Region: the structure of bilateral and multilateral cooperation’. Hønneland spoke to Norway’s aspirations in the Arctic region and outlined Oslo’s strategy for implementing cooperation programmes with Russia. The main emphasis of the report covered the factors which form the basis of suspicion from Russia in the context of Arctic cooperation. Among them: