Suspending participation in the Arctic Council is tragic, but right

Cooperation in the Arctic will survive, but Russia must be denied the fruits of cooperation as long as it pursues its war of aggression in Ukraine.

On March 3, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States — sometimes called the “Arctic 7” or “A7” — announced that they would “temporarily pause participation in all meetings of the [Arctic] Council and its subsidiary bodies…” While some have argued against this move, freezing cooperation with Russia in the Arctic Council is a necessary consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.