Things are tense between NATO members in the Arctic

Canada, the United States, Iceland, and Spain may all allies, but the situation between them has become complex.

Mira MacNeill | November 26th, 2021

REYKJAVIK — In advance of last Tuesday's Arctic Council meeting, Iceland pulled their coast guard from the boarder of their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Then a Spanish armada arrived.

Spanish and Portuguese fishing vessels have been encroaching on the edge of Icelandic EEZ in recent weeks, and things have turned sour.

Iceland makes a majority of their income fishing, and though they fish inside of their EEZ, those encroaching on the outskirts of it can still impact their industry. When these vessels arrived, Iceland sent their coast guard out as an offensive move to encourage the fishermen to fish somewhere else.

This was a large contributing factor to the calling of the emergency Arctic Council meeting last Tuesday, as issues like these can lead to lager forms of international conflict. As an act of good faith before the meeting, Iceland called back their coast guard, but a Spanish armada appeared at the edge of the EEZ not long after.

At Tuesday's meeting, however, this issue was addressed and resolved. The EU agreed to relocate the fishing vessels and call off the armada, and the United States and Russia offered to patrol the border of Iceland's EEZ until final decisions are made about the future of industry in the Arctic at future Arctic Council meetings.

This solution, however, has created tensions between the United States and Canada. For weeks, Russia has been conducting military patrols that threaten the sea and airspace of other Arctic countries. They have recently sailed their Arctic fleet near Canada's Arctic 1 oil platform in a freedom of navigation display.

In Tuesday's meeting, a delegate from the United States stated their interest in aiding and protecting all NATO allies. Despite this statement, the United States has not offered to explicitly aid Canada as tensions rise with Russia.

Canadian officials have shared their disappointment with the US' lack of response to Canada's security issues in the Arctic. There has been no public word of response from the US.

The Arctic Council is meeting again on Tuesday to further work towards solutions that will address the current situation between these member countries.