Maria Lagutina, Yana Leksyutina, and Alexander Sergunin
The Arctic governance system, which has been relatively settled over the past decades based on a fragile balance of interests and obligations of the Arctic Council member states, is now undergoing a rigorous endurance test. The short-term hang-up of the multilateral cooperation regime due to the de-facto freezing of Russia’s activities in the Arctic Council is being overlaid by longterm structural shifts in the geopolitical landscape of the macroregion. There is a growing contradiction between the responsibility of the Arctic states for the environmental situation and the sustainable development of national Arctic territories and the search of non-Arctic countries, primarily China, for bolstering their interests in the Far North in terms of intensifying their research and economic activities in the Arctic. The new normal economic and political reality requires a revision of the rigid Arctic region’s cooperative network through engaging non-Arctic stakeholders in joint searching for niches for collaboration in the already established relations of the Arctic states and sectors of the Arctic economy. Attempting to contribute to the convergence of positions of the two sides, the chapter summarizes China’s fundamental interests in the development of international cooperation in the Arctic, analyzes China’s current research, economic, and infrastructural projects in the High North, and outlines niches for China’s involvement in the advancement of the Arctic agenda. Potential areas of tensions and cooperation in China’s bilateral relations with the key Arctic players are identified.
