A meeting of Arctic countries was held in Quebec involving the host country, the US, Russia, Norway and Denmark. Three other Scandinavian countries, however, were left uninvited, raising a wave of criticism.
The Nordic nations of Sweden and Finland, along with Iceland, criticized Canada for leaving them out of the Arctic Conference and said the work of the broader Arctic Council could be undermined.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton also expressed her concerns about not inviting the three Arctic nations.
The participating nations have been vying to prove their claims to the Arctic seabed, which Michel Chossudovsky of the Canadian-based Center for Research on Globalization says is believed to possess vast resources of minerals and petroleum.
“The Arctic is strategic – it has 25% of global oil gas reserves,” Chossudovsky said. “The stakes which are not mentioned in the media are oil and gas and militarization. Essentially, that is what involved.”