Russia, Canada, U.S. try to leave disagreements outside Arctic Council

OTTAWA -- Bitter disagreements over Syria. Concern over Russian interference in foreign politics. Worries about battling climate change. Assemble the foreign ministers of Russia, the U.S. and Canada, and those are just a few areas rife for fireworks.

But not, it would seem, if they are meeting at the Arctic Council. Canada and the U.S. are both describing Thursday's meeting of foreign ministers in Alaska as a veritable oasis distant from intertwined international tensions.

Sure, there's plenty to disagree about, says one Canadian official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of those issues.

But given that all three countries have wide and overlapping interests in the vast, melting and resource-rich Arctic region, it is in everybody's interest to co-operate and advance a co-operative agenda on those challenges, the official added.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will represent Canada at the meeting in Fairbanks, which will also include Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The foreign ministers of the five other Arctic Council countries -- Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden -- will also be on hand.

However it is the Freeland-Lavrov-Tillerson dynamic that will be closely watched.

The new Liberal government wants to co-operate with Russia on the Arctic, but it has blasted the Kremlin for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, especially after the recent gas attack on civilians.

Freeland said recently she'd be open to a bilateral meeting with Lavrov in Alaska. But it is not certain the two will have a formal tete-a-tete, though the ministers will be meeting in a relatively tight, informal setting, so anything is possible.

Freeland was playing down any possibility of controversy, saying her priorities included supporting the "resilience" of Arctic communities, including indigenous people, to climate change, and "conserving Arctic biodiversity through science-based decision-making."

"The Arctic Council is an important vehicle that supports peaceful co-operation," Freeland said in a statement Wednesday. "We are pleased to work with our neighbours and partners -- the other Arctic countries and indigenous peoples in the Arctic."

Earlier in the week, a U.S. State Department official offered the same feel-good message.

"We have a venue that has been doing very well in promoting international co-operation among all the eight nations, including Russia," said David Balton, the senior State Department official on environmental issues in the Arctic.

Whatever other differences the various members may have, they "don't manifest themselves in the work of the Arctic Council," he said.

Some of the possible tension may have been averted by the fact Lavrov stopped in Washington ahead of the Alaska summit to meet Tillerson and President Donald Trump.

After the Oval Office meeting, the White House said Trump made clear the need for Russia to "rein in" Assad, Iran and its proxies.

Lavrov also poured cold water on the ongoing firestorm in Washington over the allegations of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, deriding that as fake news and calling it a "humiliating" scenario for the American people.

The U.S. will be handing over its two-year chairmanship of the council to Finland at Thursday's meeting. Freeland said that will be a good time to take stock of the accomplishments of the last two years.

She highlighted Canada's recent investments on protecting the Arctic environment, including its $1.5 billion investment to protect oceans and $400 million to wean communities off using diesel.

Balton said the U.S. remained committed to the Arctic Council's ongoing work to combat the challenges presented by climate change, notwithstanding the unanswered question about whether Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate change accord.

"Climate change has been an ongoing topic of interest for the Arctic Council for many chairmanships going back in time and I foresee that it will continue to be one of the things the Arctic Council focuses on," he said.

"And the U.S. will remain engaged in the work that the Arctic Council does on climate change throughout."