Russia has warned the West against staking claims in the Arctic, ahead of an international meeting on the future of the region, where strategic competition has reached levels not seen since the end of the Cold War. 

Moscow has recently increased its military presence in the area while also seeking to exploit mineral resources and new shipping routes that have opened up as the ice melts.

The US, several Nordic countries and China have also made moves to protect their own interests in the region.

In February, the US sent strategic bombers to train in Norway, a move that rattled Moscow and led to accusations that Nato was “threatening” Russia.

Last year, the British Royal Navy led a multinational task group of warships and aircraft across the region’s waters.

“It has been absolutely clear for everyone for a long time that this is our territory, this is our land,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said at a press conference in Moscow yesterday.

“Let me emphasise once again: this is our land and our waters.”

The comments presage charged talks ahead at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Reykjavik on Thursday, which will bring together the foreign ministers of Arctic states.

Russia is set to take over the two-year rotating chairmanship of the body.

“We have questions for our neighbours, like Norway, who are trying to justify the need for Nato to come into the Arctic,” Mr Lavrov added.

The Russian foreign minister is due to meet separately with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, on the sidelines of the event.

The pair’s first official meeting will be held as relations between Moscow and Washington hit new lows, with Russia dubbing the US an “unfriendly” state following mutual expulsions of diplomats and fresh rounds of sanctions.

However, Russia and the US noted the Arctic as an area of co-operation during a recent climate summit, despite tensions over Ukraine, alleged Russian election meddling and cyberattacks.

A State Department spokesman said it would use the upcoming meeting to “advance efforts to sustain the Arctic as a region of peace, free of conflict”.

The secretary of state would also seek to “protect the well-being of Arctic communities and address the ever-growing threat and impacts of the climate crisis,” the spokesman added. (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2021)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]