Ministerial group to tackle increasing tensions in Arctic

A MINISTERIAL group will be established to coordinate Britain’s Arctic policy at a time when Russia and China are pushing their own interests in the region, it has emerged.

The Government confirmed its plan in a response to the Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the Arctic, which called for more ministerial focus on the area.

In the past two decades, Russia has reopened Soviet-era bases in the Arctic and in 2022 had more ground-force stations there than Nato.

Meanwhile, Beijing appears increasingly interested in the region, with melting ice opening shipping routes that could cut travel times between European and China by 11 to 14 days.

David Rutley, the Tory MP and parliamentary under secretary for the Americas, Caribbean and the Overseas Territories, officially has the polar regions in his ministerial brief.

He is supported by senior civil servants focusing on the topic including the head of the Polar Regions Department and a so-called “senior Arctic lead” in the Foreign Office.

However, the committee raised concerns that other ministers’ briefs also covered aspects of Arctic policy and yet there was no structure for them to meet and coordinate.

A part of the Government’s response to the committee read: “The Government is looking to build on this by establishing a ministerial group, comprising ministers whose portfolios concern the Arctic, which would meet periodically to help further the coordination of government policy.”

The new Whitehall body will, in theory, help improve joined-up thinking between different ministers as to the UK’S national interest in the Arctic region. Though there is no guarantee that creating the ministerial group alone will result in more focus inside the government being put on the issue.

Ministers rejected other recommendations, such as an additional government ship being sent to the Arctic region to help with research.

James Gray, the Tory chairman of the Environmental Audit Sub-committee on Polar Research, said: “The Committee’s report raised concern that Arctic matters were not being taken as seriously and urgently as they should in Whitehall.”