Common interests from the Baltic Sea to the Bering Strait

Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C. and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) organized an Arctic Maritime Awareness seminar on Friday September 27th. Minister of Transport Merja Kyllönen opened the seminar and her remarks were followed by a panel discussion with Finnish, American and Russian representatives.

The seminar focused on enhancing maritime domain awareness and critical information systems to address the increasing commercial activity in the Arctic. In recent years the maritime transit through the Bering Strait has increased by 118% and commercial use of the Northern Sea Route has increased as well. It is clear that more active steps to enhance maritime safety are needed, including a traffic management scheme for the Bering Strait. The seminar underlined the importance of close cooperation between the U.S., the Russian Federation and other partners in the Arctic. Best practices were also discussed.