India and China,both looking for new sources of energy,are competing for observer status at the Arctic Council. A decision will be made at the ministerial meeting of the Council in Sweden on May 15,and New Delhi is lobbying hard. The Arctic Council comprises the US,Canada,Denmark,Finland,Iceland,Norway,Russia and Sweden. India has already conveyed its interest to Canada,Russia and the US at the highest level,and President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to raise the issue with visiting Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson at meetings later this week. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid is set to meet Grimsson tomorrow and initiate lobbying. Sources said environmental experts will make a case for Indias effort to build scientific linkages. Grimsson,who is in India from March 31 to April 6,visited the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun on Monday. He is also expected to visit the TERI university. Moving the first formal proposal last November,New Delhi expressed interest in conducting scientific research and environmental studies. This apparently found acceptability among some Arctic Council members. On the other hand,many members have expressed reservations on China,taking into consideration Beijings hunger for unexploited mineral resources. Moreover,there is Norways discomfiture with China,ever since jailed writer Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel peace prize.a It is learnt that the European Union,Japan,South Korea,Singapore and Italy are also keen to become observers at the Council. Experts said the melting of the Arctic sea ice offers opportunities in the form of new oil and gas deposits,unexploited marine living resources and shorter shipping routes connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. But there are also some challenges due to the adversarial impact of the melting ice on the livelihoods of the people in the Arctic,disturbance in the delicate marine biodiversity of the region and the shrinking of the permafrost that would release large volumes of greenhouse gases which could further aggravate global warming.
