Sweden and Finland withdraw from the Arctic360 conference in Toronto, where Russian diplomats plan to participate
By EilĂs Quinn
The third annual Arctic360 Arctic Infrastructure Investment Conference takes place in Toronto March 9-11.
Among the preferred lecturers are a who is who of Arctic diplomats, indigenous leaders and CEOs.
Russian participants listed on the event’s website include Valerii Maksimov, senior trade commissioner of the Russian Federation in Canada, and Nikolay Korchunov, Russia’s ambassador to Arctic affairs and chairman of the Arctic Council’s senior Arctic officials. in.
On Twitter on Friday afternoon, the Swedish embassy in Ottawa announced that Urban Ahlin, Sweden’s ambassador to Canada, will no longer be present:
The Swedish Ambassador to Canada will not be attending this conference. We will ask the organizers to update the event information on their page.
– Sweden in Canada (@SwedeninCAN) February 25, 2022
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The Finnish embassy in Ottawa also said on Friday that Roy Kennet Eriksson, Finland’s ambassador to Canada, withdrew:
Finland’s ambassador will not attend either
– Finland in Canada (@FinlandinCanada) February 25, 2022
The embassies’ messages were in response to a tweet by Marcus Kolga, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent think tank for public policy in Canada, who said he was concerned about Russian messages coming out of the conference.
A spokesman for the Swedish embassy in Ottawa told Eye on the Arctic that in addition to confirming that Ambassador Ahlin withdrew from the event, the ambassador had no further comments on the decision.
No one from the Embassy of Finland could be reached for comment before this story was published.
“An important moment to discuss the Arctic Council”
Arctic360 is an independent think tank focused on Alaska, Canada and Greenland.
The first session of their conference is entitled “The Arctic Council at 25: Looking at the Next 25 Years”, and was dedicated to the Arctic Council, the international forum consisting of Canada, Denmark / Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
Korchunov was scheduled to give an introduction and member diplomats would attend the session.
Conference organizers say the keynote will no longer be implemented and are now revisiting the session.
“We are refocusing on the panel in the light of current events, making it more relevant,” the organizers said in an email.
“We believe this is an important moment to discuss the Arctic Council and the future of its membership.”
This story is posted on the Independent Barents Observer as part of Eye on the Arctica collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.