China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic
In recent years, China has evidently become a significant actor in the Arctic – a region located around the circumpo-lar north comprising territories of eight states and the Arctic Ocean. In 2013, China’s achievement of observer status at the Arctic Council – the high level inter-governmental forum o...
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Online Access: | https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/26c5bd58-7c84-43d2-984a-5669821d4fdf https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP |
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ftulaplandcdispu:oai:lacris.ulapland.fi:publications/26c5bd58-7c84-43d2-984a-5669821d4fdf 2024-06-23T07:48:26+00:00 China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic Hossain, Kamrul 2019-01-25 https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/26c5bd58-7c84-43d2-984a-5669821d4fdf https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP eng eng https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/26c5bd58-7c84-43d2-984a-5669821d4fdf info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Hossain , K 2019 , ' China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition : The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic ' , Cambridge journal of Eurasian studies , pp. 1-14 . https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative China /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/5/13 name=Law article 2019 ftulaplandcdispu https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP 2024-06-10T23:41:12Z In recent years, China has evidently become a significant actor in the Arctic – a region located around the circumpo-lar north comprising territories of eight states and the Arctic Ocean. In 2013, China’s achievement of observer status at the Arctic Council – the high level inter-governmental forum of these eight circumpolar states – provided the country with legitimacy in its growing engagement with the Arctic region and its actors. A number of interests in the region motivates this engagement, most crucially that the Arctic is a resource rich region full of potential to further boost China’s local economy. The region contains, among other resources, approximately one-fourth of world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources. The increased melting of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean as a result of global warming is gradually opening access to water routes, and the region itself. The Arctic sea routes, in particular the Northern Sea Route (NSR), have already been identified as crucial navigation routes for China to expand its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the Arctic. The expansion is now widely known as the Silk Road on the Ice or the Polar Silk Road wherein China closely cooperates with Russia and other Arctic states to promote the infrastructural development to operationalise the NSR. China’s investments in a number of projects are making the country an influential actor in the Arctic region. As such, China’s Arctic engagement is at times perceived as an attempt to enhance its ambitions, not only in terms of its economic interests, but also to move a step further towards gaining great power status in world politics. While China firmly commits to respect the sensitive environmental considerations existing in the Arctic and the sovereignty of the Arctic states, it also explicitly highlights its legitimate rights under international law, i.e., freedom of navigation through the Arctic sea routes. In this context, the following article explores the extension of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt to the Arctic vis-á-vis the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Council Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Northern Sea Route Sea ice LaCRIS - University of Lapland Current Research System Arctic Arctic Ocean Cambridge Journal of Eurasian Studies 3 1 15 |
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Open Polar |
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LaCRIS - University of Lapland Current Research System |
op_collection_id |
ftulaplandcdispu |
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English |
topic |
Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative China /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/5/13 name=Law |
spellingShingle |
Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative China /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/5/13 name=Law Hossain, Kamrul China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic |
topic_facet |
Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative China /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/5/13 name=Law |
description |
In recent years, China has evidently become a significant actor in the Arctic – a region located around the circumpo-lar north comprising territories of eight states and the Arctic Ocean. In 2013, China’s achievement of observer status at the Arctic Council – the high level inter-governmental forum of these eight circumpolar states – provided the country with legitimacy in its growing engagement with the Arctic region and its actors. A number of interests in the region motivates this engagement, most crucially that the Arctic is a resource rich region full of potential to further boost China’s local economy. The region contains, among other resources, approximately one-fourth of world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources. The increased melting of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean as a result of global warming is gradually opening access to water routes, and the region itself. The Arctic sea routes, in particular the Northern Sea Route (NSR), have already been identified as crucial navigation routes for China to expand its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the Arctic. The expansion is now widely known as the Silk Road on the Ice or the Polar Silk Road wherein China closely cooperates with Russia and other Arctic states to promote the infrastructural development to operationalise the NSR. China’s investments in a number of projects are making the country an influential actor in the Arctic region. As such, China’s Arctic engagement is at times perceived as an attempt to enhance its ambitions, not only in terms of its economic interests, but also to move a step further towards gaining great power status in world politics. While China firmly commits to respect the sensitive environmental considerations existing in the Arctic and the sovereignty of the Arctic states, it also explicitly highlights its legitimate rights under international law, i.e., freedom of navigation through the Arctic sea routes. In this context, the following article explores the extension of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt to the Arctic vis-á-vis the ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hossain, Kamrul |
author_facet |
Hossain, Kamrul |
author_sort |
Hossain, Kamrul |
title |
China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic |
title_short |
China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic |
title_full |
China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic |
title_fullStr |
China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition:The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic |
title_sort |
china’s bri expansion and great power ambition:the silk road on the ice connecting the arctic |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/26c5bd58-7c84-43d2-984a-5669821d4fdf https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Council Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Northern Sea Route Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Council Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Northern Sea Route Sea ice |
op_source |
Hossain , K 2019 , ' China’s BRI expansion and great power ambition : The Silk Road on the ice connecting the Arctic ' , Cambridge journal of Eurasian studies , pp. 1-14 . https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP |
op_relation |
https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/26c5bd58-7c84-43d2-984a-5669821d4fdf |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.22261/CJES.F3OSGP |
container_title |
Cambridge Journal of Eurasian Studies |
container_volume |
3 |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
15 |
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1802638851512991744 |