ABSTRACT
In this article we seek to provide a foundation for understanding the motivations forand general characteristics of Norway’s High North diplomacy towards Asian states. This aspect of Norway’s High North policy is fairly recent and has yet to be investigated in much detail. We draw attention to Norway’s interaction on Arctic issues with the five Asian states that were granted status as permanent observers to the Arctic Council in 2013-China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and India.1 We will refer to these five countries as ‘Asia 5’. We argue that the High North diplomacy towards the Arctic newcomers builds on the same principles and is a continuation of Norwegian High North diplomacy as we have known it since the mid-2000s. Although now relating to new states further away with less direct interest in the region and very different political, social and economic histories, the overall approach of Norway’s High North diplomacy remains the same: inform and engage. Hence, before we examine Norway’s Arctic diplomacy towards Asia, we outline the main traits of Norway’s High North policy, including relations with Russia and the diplomacy towards major allies since the mid-2000s. Russia’s relations with Asian states in the Arctic, particularly China, are of great importance to Norway in the High North, due to the country’s close relations with, and in many cases interdependence with, Russia in the region. For example, will Russia be a door opener or a gate keeper in relations with China, Japan and the other Asian states in the Arctic? This question is analysed in more detail by other authors in this volume. However, in order to understand Norway’s High North diplomacy towards Asian states, we need to understand how Norway and Russia interact in the north. Finally, we include domestic factors in the analysis as we believe that knowledge about domestic policy processes serves to
enhance our understanding of Norway as an actor on the international Arctic scene, including relations with Asian states.
