Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store opened last week’s international conference on managing the Arctic with a plea to co-operate peacefully as the five nations that border the Arctic begin to vie for the lucrative resources that lie under the seabed. Using the catchphrase “High North, low tension”, Store was optimistic at the summit in the northern Norwegian town of Tromso.
The main focus of this year’s Arctic summit was the rapid melting of the Arctic’s ice. The AFP reports that the Arctic region holds up to 30 percent of the planet’s undiscovered natural gas reserves and perhaps 13 percent of undiscovered oil reserves. These resources will finally become accessible as the Arctic ice cap melts away.
The race to claim these potential riches has been accompanied by a similar increase in military activity in the region. NATO plans to play a bigger role in the region, and Russia has been increasingly vocal about its rights to deploy military units in the Arctic.
Store told reporters: “We will as responsible governments and coastal states be able to manage the challenges and opportunities of this region without gliding into conflict and negative competition. We have every opportunity to prove wrong those who say that this is bound to be a regional conflict of competing interests. It need not be that way; we can do that very differently.”
Last year the European Commission proposed banning imports of pelts and other products from seals that were killed in an inhumane manner. While their motive is noble, Norway feels it may discourage the sustainable harvest of other resources and is threatening to challenge the ban if the EU passes it. 
The final recommendations of the UN Council on the Limits of the Continental Shelf have extended Norway’s control of the seabed off its coastline to around 235,000 square kilometres. By international standard all coastal nations have a continental shelf of 200 nautical miles. While this means Norway is now responsible for the management of the increased underwater territory, it also means Norway can tap into more of the potential natural resources that are believed to lie beneath the Arctic Sea.