Arctic must be zone of peace, says Putin

Sep 24, 2010 |

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Sept. 23: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called Thursday for “a zone of peace” in the Arctic as Russia and its Polar neighbours scramble to stake their claims to the region’s energy-rich seabed. “We think it is imperative to keep the Arctic as a zone of peace and cooperation,” Putin told international participants at the first Arctic Forum in Moscow, which stressed the eye-watering potential for offshore development.

“We all know that it is hard to live alone in the Arctic,” Mr Putin said. “We have heard futuristic predictions threatening a ‘battle for the Arctic’,” he added. But “the majority of scary scenarios about the Arctic do not have any real basis.”

Opening the two-day conference a day earlier, Iceland’s President Olafur Grimsson had called for an end to “Cold War” tensions over the Arctic, saying the time for such a struggle had passed.

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