A recent evaluation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) obtained by the Canadian press through access to resource extraction projects identified with information, increasing ship traffic and the construction of ports such as some of the ways in which the actors of bad faith could use to gain ground in the Arctic.
“There are a lot of Russian military deployed in that region and in theory, at least if they wanted, they could land on any remote Canadian island and take some territory,” says Stéphane Roussel, professor of political sciences in the École Nationale d’Ancermina Publique.
But Roussel warns about greater threat closer to home. He says that the new US administration might want to challenge Canadian statements in some Arctic areas, namely the passage of the Northwest.
The maritime route moves through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada, which extends from the north of the island of Baffin to the Beaufort sea, next to the American state of Alaska. It is the longest claim of the Coast of Canada as sovereign.
In 2019, during the 11th Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council in Finland, the former Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, accused Canada of making illegitimate claims to the Northwest passage as internal waters.
“It is possible that the Trump administration wants to relive these conflicts and openly dispute Canadian statements in this region,” Roussel said.
