U.S. to post diplomat in Arctic Circle

OSLO, Norway — The United States will soon open a small diplomatic mission in Norway that will be its northernmost in the world and only such facility above the Arctic Circle, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday.

The move, which Blinken announced at a news conference in Oslo after attending a NATO foreign ministers meeting, comes as competition over the high north’s resources with Russia intensifies.

Blinken said the U.S. would open what is known as an “American Presence Post” in Tromsoe, which sits 217 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The post will open later this year and be staffed by a single U.S. diplomat with the title of “consul.”

“We’re here to work with like-minded allies to advance our vision of a peaceful, stable and cooperative Arctic,” Blinken said before meeting Norway’s foreign minister whose country is preparing to assume the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, which is headquartered in Tromsoe.

Norway will take over the eight-nation grouping of countries that border the Arctic after two years of Russian leadership during which the bloc was largely ignored by other members as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.