Tensions rise as superpowers scrap for a piece of the Arctic
Katya Adler
Europe editor
Reporting fromNorthern Norway and Svalbard
BBC
As soon as Magnus Mæland became mayor of a small town on Norway's northern tip in late 2023, three delegations from China came knocking on his door.
"It's because they want to be a polar superpower," he tells me.
China might not instinctively spring to mind when you think about the Arctic - but it's determined to be a big Arctic player. It's been vying to buy real estate, get involved in infrastructure projects and hopes to establish a permanent regional presence.
China already describes itself as a "near-Arctic state", even though its northernmost regional capital Harbin is on roughly the same latitude as Venice, Italy.
But the Arctic is fast becoming one of the most hotly-contested parts of the world. Beijing faces stiff competition from Russia, Europe, India and the US.
The race for the Arctic is on.
Climate scientists say the Arctic is warming four times faster than anywhere else. This impacts ecosystems, wildlife and local populations. The Arctic is enormous, encoming 4% of the globe.
But global powers see a new world of opportunities opening up in the Arctic on the back of environmental changes.
The melting ice in the Arctic makes it easier to access the region's incredible natural resources - critical minerals, oil, and gas - around 30% of untapped natural gas is said to be found in the Arctic.
And it's opening up possibilities for new maritime trade routes, drastically reducing travel time between Asia and Europe. In the export business, time is money. China has been developing a "Polar Silk Road" plan for Arctic shipping.
Kirkenes hopes to be the first European stop for Chinese cargo ships in the future, but is wary of allowing Beijing too much influence in the port
When I visit, the port of Kirkenes looks pretty ghostly.
Inside the Arctic Circle, at the northernmost point of mainland Norway, the former mining town is a gritty contrast with the picture-postcard, snow-covered mountains and fjords that surround it.
There are shuttered shops and abandoned warehouses, riddled with broken windows. The town feels forgotten and left behind.
So you can imagine the appeal of possibly becoming the first European port of call for masses of container ships from Asia, depending on how fast the polar ice continues to melt.
The town's port director, Terje Jørgensen, plans to build a brand new international port. His eyes light up when he talks about becoming the Singapore of Europe's High North.
"What we're trying to build here in Kirkenes is a trans-shipment port where three continents meet: North America, Europe and Asia. We'll take the goods ashore and reload onto other vessels [for further export]. We don't need to sell any land to anyone. Not to a UK company, not a Chinese company.
New laws in Norway prohibit the transfer of property or businesses, if the sale could harm "Norwegian security interests", he says. What they're waiting for, he adds, are clear guidelines from the government about what kind of critical infrastructure this might cover.
Mayor Mæland certainly seems wary of China's intentions. "We want a relationship with China, but we don't want to be dependent on China," he tells me.
"Europe has to ask itself 'How dependent do you want to be on totalitarian and authoritarian regimes"Intelligence officers monitor Russian movements in Arctic waters from the military headquarters inside a mountain
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Intelligence officers monitor Russian movements in Arctic waters from the military headquarters inside a mountain
Norwegian military commanders still hold a weekly call with their opposite numbers in Moscow.
US President Donald Trump has told Europe it must do more for its own defence, but inside the Arctic, there is a "great overlap of interests", says the chief of the Norwegian t headquarters Vice Rune Andersen.
"This is also homeland defence… The Russian concentration of nuclear weapons, the capabilities that Russia is deploying are not only aimed at Europe, but also at the US," he says.
Vice Andersen doesn't believe any party is courting open conflict in the Arctic but with global tensions rising elsewhere, such as over Ukraine, the potential for spillover in the Arctic is there.
The vice iral's team schedules a routine call to Russia's Northern Fleet every Wednesday afternoon -to keep communication channels open, they say. Just in case.
Conscripts watch other NATO warships from on board the Norwegian frigate Otto Sverdrup
Vice Rune Andersen told the BBC that Nato allies were now providing a more robust deterrent against Russia in the Arctic
Conscripts and officers taking part in a live firing drill on board the Otto Sverdrup
If you leave Kirkenes and head towards the North Pole, you come across the magnificent Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard at about the half-way mark. It's home to ice floes, glaciers and more polar bears than people.
Svalbard is at the heart of the scramble between global powers for Arctic resources. While Norwegian, the archipelago is governed by a treaty allowing people from all countries that signed it to work there visa-free. Most are employed in mines, tourism and scientific research.
That may sound harmonious, but since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine there's been a noticeable flexing of nationalist muscles in some communities here.
They include military parades by the Russian settlement to mark their commemorations for the end of World War Two, the flying of a Soviet flag over Russian infrastructure, and growing suspicion that the Chinese have made their Svalbard research station dual-purpose - for military espionage.
Regardless of whether or not that's true, local mayor Terje Aunevik says it would be naïve to suggest there was no intelligence-gathering going on in the different countries' research centres.
"Of course there is... I think the world has been gripped by Arctic fomo [fear of missing out]."
The day I arrive in Svalbard, it's Norway's national day. The streets are thronging with a snaking parade of mums, dads and children from the local school, clad in Norwegian national dress.
Longyearbyen is the northernmost town in the world. Bright sunshine glints off the Arctic waters below the main street, and the flat-topped, snow and ice-covered mountains all around.
Everywhere I look, I see shop windows, prams and women's hairdos festooned with blue, white and red Norwegian flags. Perhaps I imagined it, but among all the cheeriness, it felt like there was another, unspoken sentiment that day, a reminder: 'Svalbard belongs to us!'
The rising mood of national rivalries in the Arctic is not without consequences.
People in Svalbard celebrate Norway's national day in the country's national dress
Svalbard is at the heart of the scramble between global powers for Arctic resources
Indigenous communities in the region, just over half of whom live in the Russian Arctic, often feel that there is a failure on the part of those in power to acknowledge the rights of the peoples who have long called the region home.
Miyuki Daorana, a youth activist from Greenland representing the Inughuit indigenous community, says when Donald Trump claimed he wanted to buy the country during his first presidency, they laughed it off. But this time it feels different, she says.
"Because of the current global political situation, with power play and competition for resources, it's much more serious."
She, and others in the indigenous communities, accuse European countries of using the "climate crisis" as an excuse to "extract and invade indigenous lands".
"It's something we call green colonialism or developmental aggression where they really want to just take more and more from lands," she says.
"[The Arctic] is not just a topic for us. It's not just an interest, it's not a study. It's literally our lives and real struggles and emotions and very unfair injustices.
"The government and the politicians, they're supposed to work for the people. But I haven't seen that. It's mostly diplomatic words."
Not long ago, you used to hear talk of Arctic exceptionalism, where the eight countries bordering the Arctic - Canada, Russia, the US, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland - along with representatives of six Arctic indigenous communities and other observer countries, including China and the UK, would put aside political differences to work together to protect and govern this incredible part of the world.
But these are times now of big power politics. Countries increasingly act in their own interests.
With so many rival nations now in the Arctic, the risks of misinterpretation or miscalculation are high.
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